Tales of Tiberia
by Velkan The Impaler
Summary: Lloyd and Colette's journey to collect the remaining exspheres soon turns into another adventure to save the newly united world from being destroyed. Please review.
1. Trouble at Sea

Hey guys. I just want to thank all of you for taking the time to read this story, especially since I've been trying to come up with ideas for this fic since September or October and it's finally getting posted. I'll gladly take any comments you guys have for this, but I just have one request: please do NOT tell me what to change, any characters you think I should add, or anything else that would change the plot in any way. Like my other stories, I have an outline for this story, so I know what's going to happen down the road from now, and nothing you say will convince me to change what I've planned.

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_Once upon a time, there was a great world that had a peaceful existence. The Kharlan War, however, sent this world into chaos, and several thousands of innocent people were killed. Mithos and his companions sought to end this war and rescue the world and end the destruction, but not before the damage was done. The power of the great hero was left behind after his demise. And that was the start of the Eternal Swordsman's new journey._

The sun was blazing the crystal clear blue waters as the mysterious creatures that inhabited the newly united world of Aselia swam about. Everything seemed so clear and perfect, you'd have no idea that the world was on the brink of destruction just a short while before.

All of a sudden, a quick brown flash shot across the peaceful water. It was a small brown boat, but had the power of mana to propel it to move as if it had an engine. On it were two people: one was a boy in his late teens wearing dwarf-made red clothes made of woven cloth that matched his red boots. His short, spiked brown hair was blowing backwards in the wind as he steered the boat forward.

Behind him was a girl a few months younger than him. She had an overall happy look about her as her long blonde hair got caught in the wind as it resisted the boat. Her white clothes reflected the hot sunlight.

They were Lloyd and Colette, two heroes of the newly united world. It had been a few months since the downfall of Mithos, the hero of the Ancient War. Since then, Lloyd and Colette had embarked on their journey to collect all the exspheres in the world and hopefully destroy them.

Since that fateful battle, all of the people in Lloyd and Colette's group who they had grown so tight to had went their separate ways. Their best friend, a half-elf named Genis and his sister Raine, had begun traveling to distant lands to try to make it easier for half-elves all around the world to live without being discriminated against.

Sheena, the group's summoner for their life-altering journey, had gone back to her home town of Mizuho to become the successor to its chief. She was going to help everyone do their best to move the town to where they wanted it to go.

Zelos, Tethe'alla's Chosen of Mana, was going back to his home in the Kingdom City of Meltokio, trying to get the easy life he wanted, but still keeping things in check.

Regal Bryant, the former president of the Lazareno Company, had gone back to his job there to help Lloyd and Colette excavate any areas where exspheres could be. He got some aid from his late lover's sister, Presea. Presea had since grown to forgive Regal for killing her sister, but she would never forget that he did it.

But the one who raised the most questions of their life after the journey was Kratos. Kratos was, as Lloyd called him, the angel, the one who betrayed them; the hero of the ancient war who helped them. The ex-Cruxis member and former Seraphim had gone back to Derris-Kharlan as it floated away and out of Aselia's gravitational field to watch over the angels that had lived there. The final words that were heard from him were "Don't die, Lloyd-my son."

Lloyd found himself missing Kratos a lot more frequently than he thought, but as he told his foster-father, he had his own path to follow. Lloyd had chosen his destiny, and Kratos had chosen his.

"Lloyd?" asked a sweet voice from behind him. "Are you okay?"

Lloyd snapped awake and did a few double takes. He was behind the wheel of the small boat that was just barely big enough to fit him and Colette, and even though he had been steering, he had started to let his mind wander.

"Huh? I'm…fine," Lloyd answered. "Sorry, just started zoning out a little."

"Are we still on course?" Colette asked cheerfully.

"So far, so good," Lloyd said. "We'll probably get to Flanoir in a few hours."

"Oh…okay."

Lloyd and Colette were out on the ocean and on their quest to rid the world of the remaining exspheres. The two still hadn't discarded theirs, though. And soon, they would be thankful that none of their former companions had destroyed theirs, either.

The boat ride was silent for a while until Lloyd and Colette saw something in the distance. Hundreds of feet ahead of them in the water, there appeared to be another ship. It was a dark figure on the horizon, but as Lloyd and Colette neared it, they saw that it was much larger than their boat and that there were several people on board, all of them looking very nasty and vicious.

"Who…who are those people?" Colette asked with some fear causing her voice to tremble.

"I don't know," Lloyd said, looking at the massive wooden ship. "But they definitely don't look very friendly."

"Hey!" yelled one of the men on board. He looked over the edge and glared at Lloyd and Colette's boat. Looking like he was ready to kill them, he turned to the side and screamed to someone else, "Tell the captain we've got some scum on our tail!"

"Did he just call us scum?" Lloyd asked, not thinking things through.

A small sound was heard coming from the bigger wooden boat, and out from a side socket in the ship's lining popped a cannon.

Lloyd and Colette didn't say anything, but instead just stared right at the cannon. After a few seconds, someone on the ship yelled, "FIRE!"

Knowing a cannonball was about to come shooting out at them, Lloyd had the boat make a sharp turn. A heavy black came shooting out of the cannon and landed in the water only inches from Lloyd and Colette's boat.

"Ugh…dammit!" Lloyd cursed. "Looks like they've got some big weapons. Colette, take the wheel!"

"Huh…Wha?" Colette asked, confused as ever.

"Just do it!" Lloyd commanded, but in a low tone.

Nervously, Colette walked over to the steering wheel on the small boat and grabbed a hold of it. When Lloyd was sure she was in control, he jumped up into the air. He looked at the blue jewel in his hand, and as he did it. In less than a second, a pair of multi-colored wings sprouted from Lloyd's back. Gravity no longer was a problem for him, for he could now float with his angel wings.

With his wings, Lloyd soared just a few feet over and onto the giant ship that just attacked them. Looking around, it was clear that he was on a pirate ship.

The second Lloyd plopped his feet onto the wooden floor of the pirate ship, he reached both of his hands at the side of his dark colored pants and pulled out his two material blades with such speed, it was a literally a "blink-and-you-miss-it" moment.

Lloyd took his red and blue swords and ran over to one of the pirates working the cannon and took two savage swings at him. The pirate screamed in pain as he fell on the ground after being struck numerous times by Lloyd's powerful weapons.

After taking down one pirate, Lloyd turned around and saw that there were three others coming up from behind him. They had pulled out their swords, which looked like really thin, dark gray scimitars.

Lloyd stared at the three of them with furious eyes. Even though they outnumbered him three-to-one, he wasn't the slightest bit afraid of them.

As the three pirates started closing in on him, Lloyd took slow, small steps backwards from them, but still kept his swords ready to strike.

The pirate in between the other two was the first to make his move. He jumped in screaming loudly and had his scimitar in the air, ready to strike Lloyd with every ounce of his strength.

But just as the pirate was about to slice Lloyd's head open with the sword, Lloyd put up the blue sword in his left hand and used to block the oncoming strike. Lloyd then took the Flamberge in his right hand and made a quick, clean cut across the pirate's stomach with it. Defeated, the pirate slumped onto the wooden floor in a crumpled heap.

Lloyd quickly looked up from the pirate he just killed and stared at the other two. They both started charging in savagely, looking like they were about to improvise any fighting moves they were about to perform on him.

The two pirates closed in on him and surrounded him from both sides. They looked much more menacing now since Lloyd could, at that moment, only concentrate on one of them. His focus was even more broken when it looked like the meanest pirate that Lloyd had seen yet walked out in the open.

This pirate wasn't round, but he certainly had a larger-than-normal gut. His eyes were dark brown, but he didn't have a bandana, a weird hat, a hook for a hand or a peg leg. He did, however, have messy brown hair and his teeth were out of place.

"Kill him!" yelled , the strong looking pirate. "Don't let him get away!"

Saying that???? walked in a door that led inside the ship, which Lloyd assumed was the captain's quarters. As he turned his attention back to the two other pirates, both were ready to make quick work of Lloyd by slashing at his throat.

Lloyd turned his attention towards one of the pirates and stabbed him a couple of times with his material blades before making a final stab into the pirate.

But just as Lloyd finished off one pirate, he turned around and saw the other. Before Lloyd could react, the third pirate kicked him in the stomach and knocked him to the ground. When Lloyd looked up, he saw the pirate about to stick his sword right through Lloyd.

Lloyd didn't have any time to react or to defend himself, and it looked like it was over. But out of nowhere, a swishing sound was heard and something circular with sharp edges struck the pirate on the side of the head and knocked him off the boat and into the water. Lloyd sat up and saw one of Colette's chakrams come flying back into her hand, like a boomerang. It looked like, for once, she had saved _his_ life.

Lloyd didn't see any more pirates for a brief second, and he was going to take full advantage of it. He ran over to all the cannons in place and started smashing them with his two swords until they all broke.

When Lloyd destroyed the last cannon, he turned around and saw over twenty pirates staring at him, all of them ready to attack. Not wanting to stay there any longer, Lloyd sprouted his angel wings and flew off the pirate ship and back onto the one he had been driving a little while before.

As Lloyd landed on the boat, he ordered Colette to step back. Without saying a word, Colette got out of Lloyd's way and let Lloyd take the wheel.

Lloyd made the boat go as fast as he could and got away from the pirate ship, not once looking back. When they finally far enough away, Lloyd slowed the boat down and got a moment to catch his breath.

"Whew," Colette said. "Good work getting rid of those pirates, Lloyd."

A small smile spread across Lloyd's face. "It just wasn't their day." But then, something happened that made the smile go away and get replaced by anger and frustration. "Dammit!"

"What is it, Lloyd?" Colette asked, worried.

"Those stupid pirates sidetracked us!" Lloyd answered, annoyed. "I lost our course because of them! Now we're stuck in the middle of the nowhere with no idea where we're going!"

"Lloyd, don't worry," Colette said, trying her best to comfort him. "We'll be okay. I'm sure any moment now we'll see somewhere to dock."

Lloyd exhaled deeply, but didn't say anything, so Colette wasn't sure whether or not he agreed or disagreed. Then, Lloyd looked up and suddenly had become very nervous. "Uh-oh."

"What's wrong, Lloyd?"

"Colette," Lloyd said in a whimper now. "We're lost at sea, and it looks like a giant storm is coming…"


	2. Shipwrecked

There was a slight mess-up in the last chapter. When the pirate captain appeared briefly, his name was supposed to be "?", just like an unknown character in the game. But the first time ? was typed in, it got deleted somehow, and the second time I guess I didn't hit the space button. Anyway, from now on, when you meet a character you don't know, their name will be ?

And Leppers, thank you for reviewing. You might be happy to know you gave me the motivation to try posting this entire thing.

And I forgot to mention this in the last chapter. The legal stuff. I don't know own Tales of Symphonia or any of the characters, names or anything else associated with it.

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Lloyd and Colette looked up at the menacing sky as dark clouds started to swirl in. In a matter of minutes, the blue sky was completely darkened and the sunlight no longer glittered on the water.

Colette was obviously very nervous about being lost in the middle of the ocean with a storm coming. She was quivering and letting out a few scared moans. Lloyd was scared about it as well, but he tried harder to hide it. And as far as fooling Colette went, he did a good job at it.

Suddenly, the boat started rocking harder than normal. Lloyd looked over the side and saw that the force of the waves had drastically increased, and it was causing him to slowly lose control of the boat.

Out of nowhere, a giant wave came up from behind the two and smashed into their boat, sending it spinning across the water. Trying to keep his cool, Lloyd threw his arms around Colette and embraced her, protecting her.

Suddenly, the wind became more and more violent and a forceful downpour started descending from the dark clouds. The rain soaked Lloyd and Colette and made them both very cold, but there was little they could do about it other than just cling onto each other hope for the best.

Lloyd and Colette had their eyes squeezed shut as they held on to each other. The violent storm had come out of nowhere, and the heavy and thick rain made it impossible to drive the boat. The waves were actually steering the boat _for_ the two, but not necessarily in the direction they intended to go in. (the heavy wind also caused the boat to steer itself as well)

While Lloyd was still embracing Colette, he looked up and opened his eyes. He battled the thick rain as he tried to see what was in front of him. In the distance he saw what looked like a black mass in the almost-purple, raging sea. With no control of the boat, the wind and waves started forcing their small vessel towards that black mass in the middle of the sea.

Lloyd couldn't tell what the black mass was; all he knew was that the boat was coming right towards it and they were about to smash into it.

The time finally came when their boat did indeed smash into the black shadow in the water. A loud sound of their wooden boat smashing and crumpling to pieces was heard, and then everything went black. Lloyd remembered nothing more after that.

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The sun was out and there was a great feeling of peace all around. Lloyd slowly opened his eyes as he tried his best to adjust to the bright light of the sun. He coughed a little bit and spat up salty water into a small pile in front of him.

After making a few grunting sounds, he slowly sat up and tried to take in everything that just happened. His clothes were soaked and were covered in sand, and his hair was pretty wet, too.

Lloyd gasped when he turned to the side. Lying in the sand a few yards away from him was Colette, unconscious.

"Colette!" Lloyd shrieked. "Oh no. Colette!"

Lloyd jumped up and started running towards her. When he was standing right next to her, he bent down and turned her head so her face was looking at him. Her eyes were closed and she looked pretty pale.

Lloyd started lightly smacking the side of Colette's face, trying to wake her up. He screamed Colette's name numerous times as tapped her, as well as saying small phrases like, "come on, wake up!"

It finally worked when Colette's eyes opened. She looked a bit sad when she was awake, yet she looked very happy to see Lloyd.

"Colette, you're okay!" Lloyd said happily.

"Thank you, Lloyd…" Colette managed to squeak out. She slowly sat up after coughing a few more times.

Colette and Lloyd started looking around. There was nothing in front of them other than sparkling white sand and a crystal clear blue ocean. Behind them were a few trees that looked flourishing with some food growing on them.

"Where are we?" Colette asked.

"I don't know," Lloyd confessed. "But it looks like we're on an island."

"An island?"

"Yeah."

And indeed they were. Apparently, the giant black mass that Lloyd saw in the dark water during the storm was the island, and smashing into it got them shipwrecked there. The island they were on seemed to be a bit smaller than average one, but it certainly seemed inhabitable. There was food on it, and if there was food, there was probably water, too.

"Dammit!" Lloyd hissed under his breath.

"What is it, Lloyd?" Colette innocently asked.

"Look at our boat," Lloyd moaned. He pointed a few feet away from them. There, on the shoreline, were the remains of their boat. It had crumpled into a pile of chipped and snapped wood and was way beyond repair. It didn't look like there was a single piece of wood that made up the boat that didn't snap.

"So…are we stuck?" Colette asked with fear trembling in her voice.

"It looks like it," Lloyd said. But doing his best to make sure Colette didn't panic or get scared, he tried his best to stay optimistic and calm her. "But don't worry, we'll get off soon. I promise."

"Really?" Colette asked.

"Really," Lloyd said, breaking a small smile.

Lloyd put out his arm and helped pull Colette up off the ground. She grunted a little before being back on her two feet.

"So, what do we do now?" Colette asked.

"Well, I say we start trying to find a way to get off this place," Lloyd suggested.

Lloyd started pacing around, and for the first time in a long time, he started thinking about what it was that they would have to do to get themselves rescued. Somehow, something clicked in Lloyd's brain that caused him to light up.

"I've got it!" Lloyd yelled excited. "Why don't we just sprout our wings and fly away?"

"Wow, that's a great idea! You're so smart, Lloyd."

Lloyd gave a cocky smile and looked out at the ocean. He forced his wings to sprout, and then he made a great leap into the air and expected to soar away. Instead, he just fell forward and landed flat on the ground.

"What the?..." Lloyd asked as he got up.

"Lloyd, you forgot to sprout your wings!" Colette reported.

"I didn't 'forget' to sprout them," Lloyd insisted, walking over to Colette. "They wouldn't come out. Colette, why don't you try sprouting yours?"

"What? Oh…okay."

Colette closed her eyes and focused all her angelic powers on her wings. But nothing happened for her either.

"What's going on?" Lloyd demanded with an obvious amount of anger and frustrating rising. "Why can't we fly?"

This was indeed a big concern for the two. For some reason, their angel wings wouldn't sprout. Lloyd was sure his worked before. After all, he used them to fight off the pirates before they got shipwrecked. And it wouldn't make sense for Colette not to have hers.

"Maybe we should try again later," Lloyd said. "We've got bigger things to worry about right now. We need to find some food and water, and we should probably build some shelter, too."

"Okay," Colette said, trying to pleasantly go along with whatever Lloyd said.

"Well, I'm hungry," Lloyd said, rubbing his hands in circles over his stomach. "Why don't we look for something to eat?"

Once again, Colette just went along with whatever Lloyd said without having any type of disagreement or concern. The two of them started walking off the beach, away from their wrecked boat, and into a patch of jungle a short walk from the shoreline.

As they walked in, their footsteps soon got mixed with the sound of leaves rustling and any small creatures that were scampering away, terrified of the two new intruders.

After searching in the jungle for a few minutes, Colette blurted out, "What's that?"

"Hm?" Lloyd asked, turning to Colette to see what exactly she was talking about. Her eyes were wide and looked confused, yet entranced at something. "What are you looking at, Colette?"

"That!" Colette excitedly exclaimed.

Lloyd turned his head to where Colette was pointing, and he saw it, too. When he saw it, he was just as amazed and confused as Colette was.

"What _is_ that?" he whispered to himself as he stared in awe. Slowly, the two teenagers started approaching the object of interest.

It appeared to be a giant pole that was made of polished dark wood. On it were several runes and engravings that looked like some ancient elven language, and on it seemed to be a symbol of a flame.

"What do you think it's for?" Colette asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it's a pole for some religion followed by the people who once lived here," Lloyd suggested.

After staring at the mysterious pole for a few seconds, Lloyd and Colette started walking away. They continued their search for more food until they thought they heard something rustling in the bushes. Both of them instantly stopped and started holding their breath, looking around for whatever was causing the rustling that they were hearing.

"Must be a bird…" Lloyd reasoned when they were walking through the thick plants.

Suddenly, out of the wild blue, a monster popped out from one of the plants. It stood on two legs and had piercing red eyes. Its dark brown fur made it look intimidating, as did the sharp claws on its hands and feet.

"What's that!" Colette shrieked, terrified.

"I don't know," Lloyd admitted, "but it doesn't look too friendly."

Lloyd pulled out both of his material blades and started taking a few swings at the monster. But the fun ended when the monster grabbed one of Lloyd's swords and lifted it up with Lloyd still holding onto it. The monster threw the sword as hard as it could, slamming Lloyd into the ground.

"Lloyd!" Colette yelled, worried that Lloyd was hurt.

The swordsman gradually got up, but he was shaking very violently and was in obvious pain. But now his determination grew even more to take the monster down. "I'm okay, Colette."

The monster took a quick swing at Lloyd with its barred claws, but Lloyd dodged it just in time by rolling onto the ground. When he got up, he saw the monster about to swing at him again. This time, Lloyd jumped _upwards_ and grabbed onto a tree branch. With one hand clinging onto the branch and the other holding the sword, Lloyd started taking swipes at the monster.

The monster backed away when it saw it couldn't get close to Lloyd without getting a slash across the face by one of his blades. As it tried backing up, Colette threw one of her Chakrams and hit it in the chest.

The monster roared in pain as the Chakram went boomeranging back into Colette's hand. Lloyd jumped down from the branch and took a savage swing at the monster's arm. It tore the monster's arm open and blood started pouring from it.

Now screaming in rage and pain and in fear that it was overpowered, the monster retreated and ran deep into the woods at a very solid speed.

Now, Lloyd and Colette were just staring off as the monster ran into the jungle. They listened carefully as its loud footsteps quieted down as they got further away.

"What _was_ that?" Lloyd asked himself quietly.


	3. Otherworldly People

In a review for my last chapter, I got asked a question, and whenever I get asked a question I always try to reply to it. Anyway, I got asked by Dragonwings whether or not this story would mostly revolve around Colette and Lloyd and whether or not it would turn into a Colloyd. I don't write romance, so that ends that possibility. I will say that the story revolves around Lloyd and a character, but I'm not going to tell you who that character is. (but it should be obvious in the next couple of chapters) Thanks Leppers and Dragonwings for reviewing! Please keep the reviews coming!

By the way, the site's being weird and doesn't like it when there is more than one question mark, so if you see a "?" that looks out of place, it's supposed to be four ?'s. You know, the way they concealed an unknown person's identity in the game? So when you read something that says something like "'Pleased to meet you,' said ," just remember there are supposed to be four question marks after the word 'said'. Does that make sense?

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Lloyd and Colette continued to walk through the jungle after just searching it over for a little bit. They already knew there was food there, but they didn't know where to find water.

After searching for water for a short amount of time, they found some and had several gulps of it. Even after a short meal of just bananas and water, the two felt satiated.

The sun had now gone down and pitched the entire sky into black night. The stars were shining and there was a very bright glow of the moon that illuminated the beach, making the already-pale looking sand even brighter.

Lloyd and Colette didn't have any beds made or any huts built, so they instead decided to just spend the night sleeping on the ground. It was surprisingly comfortable, and the fact that the chilled night air made it cool made sleeping on the ground even more comfortable.

Lloyd and Colette lay awake for a while, mostly thinking about how long they were going to be on this island before they got off of it. Both of them were worried that their supplies wouldn't last, but they were also concerned about everybody else. They just disappeared on the ocean without a trace, and everyone would surely be worried about them if they never came back to the mainland. Everyone would definitely be worried about the two…

Then another fear popped into Lloyd's mind: what if that weird monster came back and attacked them when they weren't expecting it? Yeah, they could easily beat it, but what if there was an entire colony of them living in a deep part of the island?

Lloyd and Colette slowly drifted off to sleep with several thoughts ringing through their head. It was only their first night on the island, but it felt like they had been on it for the longest time.

The next morning, Lloyd woke up to the smell of the salted water and the soothing sound of the waves crashing on the shorelines. He slowly sat up and made a few grunting noises. He took quick glimpses at everything around him, making sure there were no monsters or anything like that around.

The swordsman got up onto his feet and started walking around to stretch and to help wake himself up. It wasn't the greatest night's sleep that he had, but it definitely reenergized him.

Not knowing what to do now, he sat back down and started drawing swirls and random pictures in the sand while he waited for Colette to wake up. Minutes later, a small yawn was heard from her. Lloyd looked up and saw the former Chosen open her eyes.

"Good morning, Lloyd," Colette said with a smile on her face as she rubbed her right eye with her corresponding arm.

"Good morning," Lloyd replied. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah," Colette said, standing up.

Lloyd made a small moaning sound as he looked out at the water. He expected to just see the sun reflecting on the clear water, but he saw something he would never have expected to see.

"Colette!" Lloyd yelled, his voice rising with excitement and anxiousness. "Look!"

Lloyd pointed out onto the water, and a large metal boat was slowly trudging its way across the sea.

"Quick Colette, get its attention!"

Colette, not knowing what to do, started stammering. Random sounds were coming from her mouth as she did the only thing she thought about: reaching into one of her pockets and pulling out her chakrams.

Colette got ready to throw one of her chakrams, but being the klutz she was, slipped and fell on to the sand. At that moment, the spinning blades got released from her hands. They went flying through the air and out onto the ocean, flying right in front of the giant iron ship as it rolled by.

The ship stopped when the chakram flew in front of it. Thinking it caught the ship's attention, Lloyd instantly threw his arms up in the air and started screaming at the top of his lungs for the ship to come to pick them up.

It seemed to have worked, because the ship slowly started turning itself so it was facing the island now. It then began steaming towards the island, apparently ready to rescue the two short-time castaways.

After what seemed like an eternity, the boat finally rolled on to the side of the island's beach. A small walkway was dropped out onto the sand, and Lloyd and Colette hurried up onto the boat.

They were greeted by some of the people on board the boat. It was obviously built for military purposes, as there were valves and metal doors all over the place. The floor was made of solid concrete, just like the painted white walls. The most obvious give-away was the fact that everyone on board was wearing some sort of military suit.

"What happened to you guys?" asked , one of the soldiers.

Lloyd and Colette turned their attention towards him. ? had fiery orange hair, but the same attire as everyone else in the room. Obviously, he wasn't very high ranked. His, as well as everyone else's uniform, consisted of dark blue pants that went down to the ankles and a shirt of the same color that was tight and went up to the wrists. The ends of his pants and sleeves were curled upwards, showing their white underside. In the side of his belt was a slot that a boomerang fit in. Going down the front of the shirt was a column of brass buttons.

"We got shipwrecked," Lloyd answered. "We were fighting this pirate, and we got lost at sea and this storm came and just washed us up on the shore of that beach."

"Well, at least we got you guys off," ? said with a smile on his face. "By the way, what are your names?"

Lloyd immediately got defensive. Even though his ship had just saved them, he still didn't want to go trusting him. "Give me your name, and I'll give you mine!"

"Lloyd!" Colette said with a plea in her voice, "please, don't be so angry! They just saved us!"

Lloyd made a small opening between his lips, making his grit teeth visible.

"My name's Colette," Colette said cheerfully with a huge smile on her face, "and this is Lloyd."

"Pleased to meet you," said ?. "My name is Kayne."

"Kayne, huh?" Lloyd asked. "Well, uh…nice to meet you, Kayne."

"Same to you," Kayne said.

Lloyd looked around and saw that the kind of uniforms the people on the ship were wearing didn't look familiar at all. He got the urge to ask, "By the way, what country are you guys fighting for?"

"Country?" Kayne asked, confused. "Oh, we're from another world."

"You are?" Colette asked. "But, the worlds have been reunited now, so…"

"No, you misunderstand me," Kayne said, looking serious. "This is a ship in the Tiberian army."

"The Tiberian army?" Lloyd asked. "Never heard of it."

"We come from another world called Tiberia," Kayne explained. "We're currently at war with someone from this world."

"Wait a minute!" Lloyd said, drawing his material blades. "If you're at war with this world, then that makes you an enemy!"

Colette gasped and started slowly backing away, afraid of Lloyd and his temper. Kayne, however, stayed relatively calm.

"Let me rephrase that," he said coolly. "It's _your_ world that's at war with _mine_!"

"It doesn't matter; you're still an enemy!" Lloyd yelled angrily, sounding more vicious with each passing second. Sweat started building up across his forehead.

"You are threatening to destroy our world!" Kayne yelled. "It's your military fleet that wants to destroy Tiberia!"

Lloyd slowly lowered his material blades but never took his eyes off Kayne, and the determination and suspicion in his eyes never changed.

"We aren't here to destroy you!" Kayne insisted. "We're only here to stop you from destroying our world!"

Lloyd still kept a very close eye on Kayne. Then, he finally just closed his eyes and sheathed his material blades. A loud sigh of relief came from Colette when he had backed down.

"I'm sorry," Lloyd said, looking at the floor. "It's just after working so hard to reunite Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, I don't want to see someone go and destroy them all over again!"

Kayne's face dropped. He suddenly looked very surprised, and even slightly scared. He stared open-mouthed. "_You're_ one of the heroes that reunited the worlds?"

"Yeah, that's right," Lloyd said in a cocky manner.

Kayne looked like he was about to say something, but he just said, "Impressive," instead.

The entire room went quiet until a loud siren sound was heard. Instantly, all the soldiers on the boat started running into a panic, leaving Lloyd and Colette looking around, nervous about what exactly was going on.

One of the higher ranked officers on the ship was running by, and just by looking at him you could tell he was superior to the soldiers. His suit was black with two silver stripes parallel to each other on the sleeves, and he had quite a few badges on his chest.

"Sir!" yelled one of the lower soldiers, "we're getting an incoming signal from the enemy!"

"Play the transmission!" ordered the superior soldier.

The lower-ranked soldier ran into the control room and hit a button. Instantly, an older, grouchy sounding voice started to fill up the inside walls of the warship.

"_Attention!"_ said the voice through the loudspeakers, _"This is General Stromm! Your ship is only a few hundred yards from ours! Surrender yourselves, and we will spare your lives! If not, prepare to be overtaken!"_

Lloyd and Colette looked at each other very nervously. What rotten luck for both of them! Of all the ships that could have been passing by and see them, they just _had_ to get on the one that was currently in the middle of a standoff against an enemy ship.

No one on the ship seemed to know what to do. Lloyd looked out one of the portholes and saw that the enemy ship was coming closer and closer to their boat, with no one being able to do much to defend it.


	4. A Brief Fight

Okay, the whole "replacing someone's name with 4 ?'s" thing didn't go too well, so I'll be doing something else instead. I'll just go back to describing them and not worrying about censoring their names in any ways.

And sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I had it all ready to go on Tuesday, but my computer was being stupid and wouldn't upload it for some reason.

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Everyone was scampering about inside the giant warship. They were all in panic about the thought that they could possibly be overtaken by their enemy and possibly be shown absolutely no mercy at all.

With the entire vessel turning chaotic, Lloyd and Colette were becoming very tense, not knowing what they were supposed to do. Should they help these guys out and destroy their enemy? Normally, Lloyd would jump at the opportunity to take down anyone who was threatening anybody else, but this time, the enemy was his _own_ world.

Still unsure of what it was they should be doing, Lloyd turned back to Kayne, who also looked like he was feeling pretty nervous about the situation.

"What do we do?" Colette asked in her whiny voice.

"We need to defend ourselves," Kayne calmly replied, not looking at either of them.

"How!" Lloyd yelled.

"I don't know," Kayne admitted. Then his eyes lit up and he looked down at the two teenagers in front of him. "Wait, you said you were some of the people who reunited this world, right?"

"Yeah," Lloyd agreed.

"I want you to help us scare off those enemies!" Kayne pleaded, his facial expression showing just how serious he was about what he was saying.

"What!"

"I want you to find your way onto their boat and take down anybody who gets in your way, but _especially_ Stromm!" Kayne commanded.

"But…" Colette started.

"No buts!" Kayne insisted loudly. "We're going to die out here unless we do something! If you're truly the people who reunited this world, then you _must_ have strength!"

"Lloyd!" Colette whined, "Please! We have to help them! If we don't, then Stromm will overtake them and their entire world will be destroyed! Think of all the innocent lives that will be lost!"

"All right…" Lloyd said, his voice breaking up in the same way once he agreed to destroy Mithos's Cruxis Crystal. "Come on, Colette! Let's teach Stromm a thing or two!"

Kayne smiled and nodded his head, pleased with the decision Lloyd and Colette made. He looked towards the doorway out of the ship and non-verbally instructed them to head out in that direction.

The two ran outside to the boat's deck and saw Stromm's massive, stronger-looking gray boat a short distance (for warships about to engage in combat, anyway) away.

Lloyd and Colette stood on the deck and forgot all about not being able to sprout their angel wings until they actually tried. Somehow, the multicolored wings managed to sprout out of their backs like nothing was wrong.

"Huh?" Lloyd asked. "What's going on?"

"Our wings…they work again?" Colette rhetorically asked.

"I guess so," Lloyd said. "But how come they're working now but not when we're on the island?"

"I don't know…"

"Well, it doesn't matter right now," Lloyd concluded. "Right now, we've got to stop Stromm before he kills all these guys and destroys that world!"

Colette agreed, and the two of them started soaring into the air and flew on to Stromm's ship, leaving all of the men completely awe-struck and even nervous about it. After all, they had never seen angels before, so they could have seemed like very powerful beings to them.

Both of them landed hard and solidly on the ship's metal floors and drew their weapons. The men in Stromm's fleet seemed to be very physically trained. Their outfits were green and had several straps at seemingly random spots on their uniform. Their weapons seemed to be fairly simple: spiked balls for long ranged attacks and a simple dagger for close-combat.

"Take…this!" Lloyd yelled. He took his ice coffin blade and stabbed it right into the chest of one of Stromm's men, knocking him to the ground.

Colette took her chakrams and sent them spinning towards two of their enemies, knocking them both to the ground. Lloyd stuck one of his material blades through both soldiers after they were on the ground and no longer a threat.

"Ha!" Lloyd yelled. "These guys aren't so tough!"

Lloyd and Colette continued to make their way through the enemy soldiers, basically knocking one off after another while barely having any close calls.

After plowing through wave after wave of soldiers trying to take them down, the two found their way inside. There were more guards waiting to battle them, but nothing they couldn't handle.

Soon after Lloyd and Colette had managed to take down anyone who stood in their way with incredible ease, they both began feeling very cocky, but Colette wanted to be really careful about how many people they were hurting.

After a while, they heard an exasperated groan. They turned around, and a man in an expensive looking military outfit was standing there. He had perfectly white pants without a single stain of anything on them and his shoes were black as the night. His shirt covered his entire upper body except for his hands, which were instead covered by very sturdy looking dark-yellow gauntlets.

His shirt was a sky-blue color that had gold plates on the shoulder blades and a column of yellow buttons. His belt was black and a hate a gold buckle, similar to the color of the badge in the center of his military hat.

"Are you the ones who killed all my men!" demanded the person.

"And if we are?" Lloyd asked, trying his best to get on the man's bad side and to make him angry.

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like tiny silver balls. "You've just made the biggest mistake of your life, messing with me!" yelled the high-ranked military officer. Saying this, he threw the silver pellets at Lloyd and Colette with a surprising amount of speed, and the two ducked out of the way, just in time.

And it was a good thing Lloyd and Colette had those reflexes, because when the silver balls hit the wall behind them, the balls exploded and created small fireballs.

Colette let out a surprised scream of fear as she saw what those weapons were capable of doing, but Lloyd stayed more calm.

"So…that's your way," Lloyd said. "Psi Tempest!"

Lloyd sprung himself into the air with both of his swords in an attack position. He started performing somersaults in the air with his swords striking the man as he landed.

"Gah!" yelled the officer in considerable pain. He turned around and looked at Lloyd, who was on his feet and ready to strike again.

"Get ready for THIS!" he yelled, looking like he was about to rip someone's head off. He put up his gauntlets and started giving Lloyd quick and painful blows to the head with them.

"Pretty good…" Lloyd managed to choke out as he kept getting pummeled.

The officer was about to deliver one last blow until he got hit in the back of the neck with something. He screamed in pain and clutched the back of his neck with his right hand where he felt it. He turned around and saw Colette catch one of her chakrams.

"How could you!" Colette scolded, basically asking how that military official could possibly have the nerve to hurt Lloyd the way he did.

The man grumbled, then took out a handful of explosive pellets from a pocket in his white pants and got ready to throw them until Lloyd ran up and kicked him from behind. The man fell forward and flat on the floor.

Lloyd took this quick opportunity to attack the man while he was down. He backed away, then screamed "RISING FALCON!"

Lloyd shot up into the air like a rocket and then pointed himself downwards towards his enemy in a diagonal slant. Both of his material blades were pointed at the person as he lay on the ground, ready to finish him off.

But just as Lloyd's flamberge and ice coffin blades were about to strike him, the soldier rolled out of the way and shot himself up. He obviously had some training as a martial artist.

Now the man was back on his feet and was in a sparring position, looking as angry as ever. But just as he was about to take a swing at Lloyd's skull, a grunt in the man's fleet entered through the door.

"General Stromm!" yelled the apparently newly-recruited soldier, "we've found something up ahead. It looks kind of big."

"Wait…you're Stromm?" Lloyd asked.

Stromm grunted. He looked at Lloyd and Colette and gave them a "this-isn't-finished" look, and immediately ran out the door to see what the soldiers were staring at.

Lloyd and Colette were going to run out after Stromm, but they what looked like over fifty soldiers standing there at once, waiting for them after they came out. There was no way the two could take on all fifty soldiers at once.

"Erg…all right, let's get out of here," Lloyd said to Colette when he realized just how outnumbered they were.

"Hah!" sneered one of the random soldiers in the crowd. "You ain't going nowhere, kid!"

"Oh yeah?" Lloyd asked. He gave Colette a quick nod of the head, signaling it was time for them to escape. Both of them sprouted their angelic wings, leaving the troops looking at them in disbelief.

Lloyd and Colette turned away and started flying back to Kayne's ship for safety. When both of them landed on the ship's deck, they took a few deep breaths as they regained their strength after that brief encounter.

"What happened?" asked Kayne, running out onto the ship's deck to greet them. "Are you guys okay?"

"We're fine," Lloyd answered. "We just fought Stromm. Man, can he put up a fight!"

"Is he dead? Did you beat him?" Kayne asked hopefully.

"No, sorry," Lloyd said, looking deflated. Kayne also looked fairly disappointed at this news.

"He seemed like a really good fighter," Colette said, putting her input in.

"Yeah. For a 40-year old, he certainly knows a thing or two about keeping his opponent on his feet," Kayne informed.

"Whoa, he's forty?" Lloyd asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Kayne replied. "But he's a great fighter because of his experience. Ever since he was named a General for leading his entire fleet to victory in a battle a long time ago, he's become very confident in himself. I think that confidence has shown through and allowed him to win quite a few battles."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Lloyd said.

"He's one of the highest-ranked men in his army's history," Kayne continued saying, "So I wouldn't take it as any surprise if he was stronger than you anticipated. Still, I don't think you guys will have any trouble defeating him."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Lloyd asked.

"You're the heroes of this world, aren't you? You and Colette? If anyone can take on Stromm and stop him from destroying our world, it's you two."

Colette and Lloyd suddenly looked like they had become very uneasy with what was being asked of them. This entire war was not something that they wanted to get caught up in, but they didn't want to just leave Kayne hanging and risk having his entire world destroyed.

"So, what do you say?" Kayne asked hopefully. "Will you two help us defeat Stromm and save our world?"

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I know I update usually once every other day, so sorry that this took a couple days longer. But, I've been really busy over the past few days, plus I work during the summer so that's going to eat up a lot of my time. Sorry if my updates are a bit slower than normal, guys.


	5. Returning Home

Kayne looked hopefully at the two young, skilled fighters in front of him, hoping desperately for their assistance to aid him the war his world was currently waging with theirs.

Lloyd and Colette looked very uncomfortable with the situation. Both of them wanted to help, but at the same time they didn't want to help. If Kayne's army won, then what would become of their own world? Would it be thrown into chaos and death like it was before their journey of regeneration?

The two teenagers kept casting quick glances at each other, seeing if the other had any idea what they should do or what they should tell Kayne. Colette became very nervous when it became apparent Lloyd had made a decision.

Lloyd looked down at the floor and closed his eyes, then shook his head. Out of his mouth came the words, "I'm sorry."

Kayne looked very upset and disappointed with Lloyd's answer, but still kept his eyes on the swordsman. A few seconds later, Lloyd looked up.

"We can't help you, Kayne," Lloyd said

"But Lloyd…" Colette whined, "what about all those innocent people on Tiberia? I don't want them to die if Kayne loses the war!"

"I don't want them to die either," Lloyd said. "But these guys are fighting _our_ world! What will happen if we lose? I don't want all our hard work over the past few months to go to waste if we help this guy out."

Kayne looked like he wanted to say something, but Lloyd started speaking again before Kayne could.

"Besides Colette, we have our own path to follow, remember? We were supposed to be collecting exspheres and destroying them."

"But Lloyd, these guys saved us!" Colette insisted. "Don't you think we should at least do something to thank them for getting us off that island?"

"I do, but what _can_ we do?"

"You could always keep an eye out for Stromm or any of his men," Kayne suggested.

"It looks like that's the only thing we _can_ do," Lloyd input. "Sorry, Kayne."

"It's all right," Kayne said, trying to take the disappointment of Lloyd and Colette not allying with him as well as he could.

There was a short but awkward silence that followed. Stromm's ship had apparently gone away after someone spotted something in the distance in the water, so everyone on board was now calming down a little.

"Can you take us to the mainland?" Lloyd requested after a disturbingly long silence.

Kayne quickly nodded his head and walked away into the front of ship where the captain was driving it. He said that they're "guests" requested to go back to the mainland, and it looked like the captain agreed to it.

Instantly, everyone felt the boat turn around and head its way back towards land. In just a few minutes, the ship had docked on a beach and Lloyd and Colette were allowed to get off.

"Remember," Kayne said to Lloyd and Colette as they hopped off the war ship, "if you have any information on Stromm or his plans, come find us immediately!"

"We will," Lloyd promised. "And thanks again for rescuing us."

Kayne didn't reply by doing anything except walking back inside the ship. Slowly, the ship started floating backwards and into deeper parts of the water, and then it started to drive off. The entire time, Lloyd and Colette just stared at it as it disappeared into the horizon.

After the ship was out of sight, Lloyd and Colette looked at each other, then looked around them to see where they were.

"…where do we go now?" Colette asked.

"Well, I think it's best that we start looking around," Lloyd suggested. "What do you think?"

"Oh…okay," Colette agreed without much trouble.

The two started hiking and looked for any familiar landmarks or places that would give them an indication where they were. After walking for a while, Lloyd saw something that jolted something in his mind.

"Colette!" he yelled, "look!"

Colette looked ahead of them and saw what looked like a huge desert in front of them. She started screaming out in panic, "Lloyd! I think I'm having those hallucinations when people are about to die from lack of food and water, because I only see sand in front of us!"

"You stupid dork," Lloyd said with a small smile, "that _is_ what I'm pointing to. Don't you know what that is?"

"Uh…"

"Colette, have you really forgotten? That's the Triet Desert, and you know what that means, don't you?"

"…no."

Lloyd looked like he was starting to get frustrated by Colette not knowing what he was getting at. "It means we must be close to Iselia!"

"Really?" Colette asked, excitedly clasping her hands together. "Can we go there?"

"Of course," Lloyd said with a pleasant look. "It'll be good seeing that town again after all these months, don't you think?"

"Yeah! Come on, let's go Lloyd!"

The two of them trudged their way through the desert, trying their best not to let the extreme heat get to them. They had to fight a few monsters as they passed through, but it was nothing that they couldn't handle.

They passed through the city of Triet and stopped to rest there for a while before they recovered their strength and headed out again. Another thing they passed as they approached the end of the desert were the remains of the fire seal, the first seal Colette broke on her journey to receive the power of angel wings. Just when they thought they saw the last thing that there was to see in the desert, Lloyd spotted a giant building with a fortified entrance.

"Hey Colette, you remember that place?" Lloyd asked, pointing to it.

"Yeah! That's the base where Yuan and Botta were!" Colette said excitedly as the memories came rushing back to her.

Colette seemed to be thrilled about recalling her first trip to the base, but Lloyd thought otherwise. He remembered his first encounter with Yuan there with a rather bitter talk between the two of them. Then a question popped in Lloyd's mind: what was Yuan doing now? Was he on Derris Kharlan with the other angels of Cruxis?

They finally made their way out of the desert and were only a short walk from Iselia now. Lloyd knew the way back very well, and he led Colette back to their home. (Although Colette didn't really forget the way back, either)

In no time, the two of them were back at the entry way to the place they called their home: the Town of Oracles: Iselia.

Lloyd and Colette walked in, hoping to have the memories stream back. But it was hard, because the two of them were in complete awe about what was around them. Iselia looked like a completely different town from when they last left it.

When the two went on their journey to rid the world of exspheres, the town still looked burnt and ruined from when the Desians attacked. There were burnt down houses and charred remains of them all over the place when they left. Now, the town looked as good as new with rebuilt buildings, and even some new ones.

"Wow!" Colette said excitedly looking at the new and improved town in front of them. "Maybe the mayor decided to do something nice for a change!"

"Please, don't remind me of that jerk," Lloyd coldly said. "If that mayor gives _anyone _ANY garbage, I'm gonna punch him in the face."

"Lloyd, that won't help," Colette said. She then let out a loud yawn. "Wow, I feel so tired. Can we rest somewhere?"

"You know, I could go for some rest too," Lloyd said. "Would your dad let us rest at your place?"

"Oh!" Colette said happily, looking behind both of them. "It looks like they've even built an inn here! We could stay there!"

Lloyd turned around and was surprised to see that Colette was actually right. He never thought that Iselia would ever feel the need to put somewhere to rest for the night there, but apparently, they did.

The two walked into the inn and shelled out as much money as they needed to in order to spend the night. They quietly went to sleep, trying to recover their strength after the long day they had.

When morning finally came, they walked out of the inn and walked outside, breathing in the fresh morning air. Iselia looked so much more beautiful and peaceful that it was hard to believe it was a pile of smoldering ash just a while ago. The grass was green and the sky looked a dazzling and beautiful shade of blue. The entire place looked more peaceful than it did before Colette received the Oracle on that day, all those months ago.

"Where are we going to go now?" Colette asked.

"I wanted to stop in and say hi to dad," Lloyd said. "I mean…not my _real_ dad, but…"

"It's okay Lloyd, I understand," Colette cheerfully replied. "I'm fine with seeing Dirk."

Lloyd quickly nodded his head, then the two left Iselia through the back entrance. They followed the trail through the woods where Forcystus's ranch used to be and left out the back way. There, sitting on top a sturdy foundation of bedrock was a small hut where Lloyd's foster father lived.

The two crossed the bridge that had a stream drifting peacefully beneath it and headed towards the small example of a home. But just as they were about to walk in, Lloyd suddenly stopped. Confused, Colette stopped and turned around. "Lloyd? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Lloyd said, turning away and walking to the side of the house. "I just want to see something. You can go inside."

Colette slowly walked into Dirk's house. After Lloyd saw her go in, he turned away again and walked behind the house. There he saw a pile of dirt, and forced into it was a slab of rock that resembled a tombstone. Lloyd slowly walked over to it with sorrow filling up his face.

"Well mom, I'm home," Lloyd said in a low and sympathetic tone. When he was only a step in front of the grave, he knelt down on one knee and stared right at the stone. It was a small memorial to dedicate to Lloyd's mother, Anna. Lloyd considered himself lucky he had no recollection of his mom dying, and especially happy that he didn't remember his father, Kratos, being the one to do it…

After staring at the stone for a while, Lloyd got up and walked to the front of Dirk's house and stepped inside. He was greeted by a short but strong man with a long bushy beard.

"Welcome back," said the man in his dwarven accent. It was Dirk, the one who took Lloyd in and raised him.

"Hi dad," Lloyd said in a non-caring tone as he spotted Colette in a corner.

"How's your journey going?" Dirk asked in his odd-sounding accent.

"So far, it's going pretty good," Lloyd said in a slightly optimistic tone. "Colette and I have been to four cities and located all the exspheres in them."

"I'm proud of you, son," Dirk said as Lloyd told him his story.

"Thanks," Lloyd said, pretending to be scratching the back of his head.

There was a bit of an awkward silence, and for half a minute, no one said anything. Lloyd turned his attention towards Colette sitting in a corner of the house and said, "Well, I think it's time we go on our way."

"Hold on a minute," Dirk said, stopping Lloyd in his tracks. "There's somebody here who wants to see you."

"Really? Who?" Lloyd asked, curiously.

Dirk looked up at the stairs and into the room where Lloyd used to sleep when he lived there. Instantly, footsteps were heard walking down the stairs. They creaked as whoever was on them came down, slowly but surely.

Thoughts were racing through Lloyd's mind. He didn't know who could be waiting for him at his old house, considering all of his companions from the journey (except for Colette) were far away from him now and had their own matters to tend to.

When the person was all the way down the stairs, Lloyd looked into the person's eyes with complete surprise. Lloyd choked on his breath and couldn't bring himself to say a thing when he saw who his surprise visitor was.


	6. Doing Research

"Da…Kratos?" Lloyd asked with no certainty in his voice. "What? But how can you…why are you here?"

The man who came down from the stairs was wearing purple clothes that stretched down to his heels. He had two flaps on his back and his hair was a moderate shade of auburn. There was no mistaking it: it was Kratos, the traitor to Lloyd's group, the traitor to Yggdrassil, the four-thousand year old Seraphim, and perhaps most important of all, Lloyd's true father and the murderer of Lloyd's mother.

"I thought you'd be surprised," Dirk casually said, not looking at either Lloyd or Kratos.

"But…how'd you get here?" Lloyd asked, having no clue what was going on. "You were on Derris-Kharlan as it was floating away from us. There's no way you could have made it back here!"

For the first time in months, Lloyd heard Kratos speak. "Let me explain." He reached into his purple cloak and pulled out a small device with a button on it.

"What's that?" Lloyd asked.

"It's a teleporter," the Seraphim replied. "It's a device Yuan and I have been working on. We've designed it to be able to transport us to anywhere in this world and nowhere else."

"Then how are you going to get back?" Lloyd questioned.

"I have a teleporter, and Yuan has a teleporter. It's designed to be able to teleport anybody back to wherever the other transporter is."

"Why can't it go to any other places besides this world and where the other transporter is?"

"Yuan and I put it in there for safety measures. This way, no one who gets the teleporter can take themselves to anywhere dangerous for themselves or for anybody else."

"Okay, I get it…I think," Lloyd replied with a bit of confusion. "Anyway, why'd you come back?"

"To be honest, I was making sure you were keeping yourself out of trouble." Kratos neutrally replied.

"Do you really not trust me that much?" Lloyd asked with a slight tone of agitation in his voice. "Come on! If I can save both worlds, I think I can manage living on my own for a while!"

Kratos just made a small "hmmmm" sound without doing anything physical. "Now then, since I know you're not in any real trouble, I'd best be on my way back to Derris-Kharlan."

Kratos was about to hit the button on his teleporter until Lloyd cried out, "Wait!"

Curious about what Lloyd was saying, Kratos put the teleporter back in his purple suit and eyed Lloyd, waiting to hear what it was he wanted to say.

"Actually, something just came up," Lloyd said in an almost guilty tone. "I don't think it's a huge problem, but I just thought you should know about it."

"What is it?" Kratos asked.

"About two days ago, Colette and I were on a boat and we chased away this pirate, but then got lost at sea and caught in the middle of a storm. We got washed up on an island, and the next day a ship came by and it rescued us. But it turns out the ship is currently at war with us and they come from another world called Tiberia."

"Tiberia?" Kratos asked, raising two fingers to his chin, obviously perplexed. "I've never heard of a world called that before."

"Yeah. There was this guy named Kayne, and he explained everything to us. He told us that this General or something like that named Stromm is a huge threat to them and that we should keep an eye out for him."

"But why would he want you to find Stromm and to eliminate him?" Kratos asked, making sure he understood everything.

"Kayne says Stromm wants to destroy Tiberia," Lloyd replied in a low voice.

"I know who Stromm is," Kratos said, "and he doesn't seem like the kind of person who would want to destroy an entire world for no reason at all."

"I guess what I'm trying to ask is whether or not we should trust Kayne or if we should let everything go and not get involved," Lloyd finally concluded.

"I regret to say I'm not certain," Kratos said. "Normally, I think it'd be best if we didn't go getting ourselves involved in others' problems, but since we're talking about the fate of an entire world, I think we should at least know what's going on."

"Yeah, but how are we going to find out about it?" Lloyd asked. "Colette and I have no idea where Kayne is, and I'm not about to spend weeks looking for that one ship in this entire world."

"Perhaps Sybak would have some information?" Kratos suggested. "The Research Academy there probably at least knows _something_ that would prove useful."

"I guess that'll work. C'mon, Colette, let's head to Sybak. Bye, dad and…dad."

"Take care, son," Dirk said, looking at Lloyd as he walked out the door.

"Bye Kratos and Dirk," Colette said, cheerfully waving goodbye to both of them.

When both teenagers were out the door, they were both stalled. "Stop!" yelled a stern and assertive voice behind them. Both turned around, and Kratos was inexplicably standing right there.

"What is it, Kratos?" Lloyd asked.

"If you're going to be getting yourselves involved this situation, then I don't want you doing anything that could prove dangerous. I'm coming with you," Kratos said, inviting himself to Sybak with his son and his friend.

Lloyd was happy that Kratos was so concerned for him and that he was coming along, but he was annoyed that Kratos was treating him like a baby.

The trio marched to Sybak, hoping for some luck in figuring out what exactly was going on between the two. They all remembered that Sybak was known for its very intelligent people and places and thought that if any place could tell them why there was a war and what it would come down to, Sybak was it.

Before long, the group walked onto the clay-colored cobblestone ground that made up the pathways in the Academic City. Just looking all around brought back memories of when they were venturing there to meet Kate and have her straighten out the problem with Presea's Cruxis Crystal.

"There it is!" Colette said excitedly as she pointed to the research academy.

"Let's go!" Lloyd said. (completely oblivious to the scoffing sound Kratos made behind him, as if he were saying "They still act like kids")

They walked in and were instantly greeted by a fair looking woman. Her hair was like a dark shade of blue tied into a ponytail behind her head. Hanging from her ears were circular turquoise earrings. She had a strong face and looked a bit thin. She was wearing blue pants with light brown shoes. Her top was a lighter shade of teal and was wearing a lab coat on top of it.

"Hello," she said with a pleasant smile. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Lloyd started stammering. He thought for a moment he was getting attracted to her. He could have been about to do something stupid, but Kratos stepped in front of him and blocked his view of her.

"We are currently looking for information about a world called Tiberia," Kratos said. "Do you know anything?"

The woman looked a little uncomfortable about it for a second, like she was thinking too hard about it. A large smile soon appeared on her, though, revealing a line of healthy looking teeth.

"As a matter of fact, I think we do. Right this way, please."

The woman led the trio into a room a few doors down the hall. In it was a staggering amount of books. There were so many books that were so long that it would be hard to actually start and finish reading all of them in the course of a single person's life.

"I'm sure there's some information in here that you can use," the woman tried to say as politely as possible. "By the way, my name is Cesara."

"Pleased to meet you, Cesara!" Colette said cheerfully and friendly.

Cesara gave Colette a quick nod, and then went back to looking at Kratos. "Take as much time as you need to look through these books and see if you can come up with anything," she suggested.

"I am very grateful for your help," Kratos said in a calm, yet polite voice. He then turned to his son and Colette. "You two-go outside and don't do anything stupid."

"What?" Lloyd asked. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm going to do some research and try to find out anything I can about Tiberia, Stromm, or even Kayne. Do you know what rank he was in the military?"

"I don't know," Lloyd said, "but it looked like he was pretty low."

"Very well then," Kratos said. "While I'm researching, you two can go outside and do whatever you wish. Just don't cause any trouble, all right?"

"You're just cutting us loose like that?" Lloyd asked, surprised.

"Don't you want any help?" Colette asked, trying to be helpful.

"I am more than capable of managing this on my own," Kratos insisted, still being almost as stubborn as he was at the beginning of the journey of regeneration.

"Uh, sure. Whatever," Lloyd said in a carefree way. "Come on, Colette. Let's see what there is to do out here."

Lloyd and Colette walked out of the academy and into the streets of Sybak filled with students with the potential to do just about anything they wanted and trying to fulfill any education needs or obstacles that would get in their way of academic greatness. It really felt pretty weird for Lloyd, considering the fact he was never that bright.

"Lloyd, do you think we'll be able to end this war between Tiberia and us so that nobody dies?" Colette nervously asked when they were outside.

"I hope so," Lloyd said. "I've said it before and I'll say it again: I want a world where no one has to sacrifice themselves and nobody has to die, like Marble. Besides, Kratos is helping us. He should be pretty helpful, don't you think?"

"I…guess," Colette said a little uneasily. "I just hope we don't have to get too involved in this."

"So do I," Lloyd concurred. "But we won't. This isn't our problem to begin with, so we shouldn't go in there and try to help out."

The two of them really didn't have much more to talk about. They just stood around for the longest time, watching all the people as they quickly came and left the city. There was nothing to do there except sit and wait for Kratos to find any information he could that could help them decide what course of action needed to be taken about the war.

Lloyd and Colette waited to the point when it was night out. The pale sky was now completely black, with the exception of the moon and the stars. Both teenagers had grown very interested in the stars since their journey began, and in no time, they found themselves staring up at the stars and wondering if they could possibly be of any help.

"Hey Lloyd, do you see that star?" Colette asked. Both of them were lying down on the now-cold cobblestone ground in Sybak. Just about every single shop had been closed and people were inside for the night, so Lloyd and Colette didn't have to worry about looking stupid or being stepped on when lying down.

"You mean that one?" Lloyd asked, pointing to a star that seemed to be flashing red.

"Yeah, that's the one!" Colette said.

The entire nighttime feeling with the cool air gave an overall sense of peace. Both of them had thoughts racing through their heads, but for some reason, they felt pretty easy and laid back. It was very relaxing, which was a feeling Lloyd and Colette hadn't felt for the longest time.

"I wonder what kind of star it is," Lloyd said. "Maybe it's one of those stars you make a wish on?"

The two continued staring off at the stars, particularly curious about what the flashing red one was. After a long silence and a feeling of quiet, a voice suddenly rang out.

"Lloyd! Colette!" said a stern adult male voice. The two kids shot up and saw it was Kratos. He was standing at the doorway to the academy, and even though he looked as emotionless as ever, there was clearly some spark in him. "I may have just found something that could prove useful!"

Relieved that the wait was finally over, Lloyd and Colette shot up off the ground and ran towards Kratos and in the building. They were hoping any information Kratos found out after all those hours of looking through book after book would be useful and help them stop the war before any lives were lost.


	7. A Reunion

Before I start, I want to thank my reviewers thus far-Leppers, Artus Gehn, Dragonwings, Starry and Christoph. Reviews to me are like days off from school in the sense that you can never have too many. Please keep the reviews coming, because they mean a lot!

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Lloyd and Colette rushed inside the academy excitedly, anxious to hear the news Kratos had found on the current situation. But when they rushed in, they were a little disappointed with the first words they heard.

"I have only managed to find out about Stromm," Kratos reported as Lloyd and Colette walked in. "But it seems as if he's had quite a bit of history."

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.

"It seems he's had a bit of a rough journey to get to where he is now. According to my research, he should still be a low-ranked soldier still," Kratos answered.

"Really?" Colette asked.

"Yes. But it seems when he and some of his fellow soldiers were on a mission, his leader got killed and all the soldiers went into a panic. It seems Stromm decided to take a leadership role, but led the mission using completely different tactics. Somehow, he still won the battle for himself and for his troops. They unanimously decided after that to make Stromm a higher-ranked member of the army, and he's proven himself time and time again."

Lloyd crossed his arms. "So you're saying that just because Stromm led everyone to victory in that one fight after their soldier was killed led everyone to making him a General?"

"Not necessarily," Kratos said. "As far as I know, he was lower than a General after he got promoted, but quickly worked his way up."

"Wow, he must be really great!" Colette said with a smile.

"He's going to prove to be a difficult opponent if we have to stop him from destroying Tiberia, though," Kratos said. "If he's led his troops to victory that many times, he's going to have a lot of confidence and he'll be very stubborn should we have to confront him."

"Yeah, but that's not gonna happen, because we're going to stop this war from going on, right Colette?" Lloyd said brimming with confidence as he balled his hand into a fist in front of him.

"Right!" Colette said, trying to have the same confidence her friend did.

"So, when do we go looking for Stromm?" Lloyd asked.

"According to my research, Stromm resides in a secret base hidden somewhere in the world," Kratos said, the tone of his voice not once changing at all as if nothing was wrong.

"Where is it?" Lloyd asked.

Kratos sighed. "I regret to inform you I do not know. The book didn't state where it was."

"Dammit!" Lloyd whispered to himself. "So you're saying we're gonna have to look around the entire world for this one hidden base that could be _anywhere_?"

"So it would seem," Kratos said.

Lloyd grumbled angrily, definitely not in the mood to look around an entire world just for one certain spot that isn't supposed to be visible. He hoped that by the time they finally found it (if they did) that it wouldn't be too late.

"At any rate, we'd better rest," Kratos said. "We should get a good night's sleep if we're going to spend all day tomorrow looking for a hidden base."

"Yeah," Lloyd and Colette agreed.

The group walked into Sybak's inn and plopped down the money to spend the night. All of them headed into their beds and did their best to fall asleep.

Kratos didn't really need sleep, but he figured he could use the rest anyway. Colette fell asleep like a small puppy, but Lloyd lay awake for the longest time. He couldn't help but think he was about to embark on another journey. He remembered how the journey of regeneration started. It seemed so simple, and it exploded into something complicated. He couldn't help but think the same thing was going to happen again by finding Stromm's hideout.

That was why he wanted to fight Stromm's secret base as quickly as possible: so they could stop Stromm from destroying Tiberia before it was too late and people had lost their lives.

Morning finally came and as the sun rose, so did all the workers and busy students in the city. Colette awoke with a loud, rejuvenated yawn and looked particularly pleasant. Lloyd didn't get much sleep for most of the night, except for just an hour or so before dawn. Therefore, he slept in later than Colette and Kratos. (if Kratos actually had to sleep at all)

When Lloyd finally woke up after everyone else, he bolted out of his bed and ran down to the front door of the inn. There stood a relieved Colette and a very annoyed Kratos.

"Lloyd, you're awake!" Colette said, pushing her balled fists up and down in mid air.

"Yes," Kratos said, obviously ticked off that it took Lloyd a long time to wake up. "We must be on our way."

Just as the three of them turned away and were about to exit Sybak, they were stopped from behind. A kiddish voice shattered the stiff air with, "Hey guys!"

The trio froze and turned around. As they turned, they saw two people standing behind them. Both had white hair and looked pretty thin. One was a younger boy, but the other was an older woman. You'd think that it was the boy and his mom, but apparently it wasn't.

"…Genis?" Lloyd asked breathlessly. As soon as he said that, a large and delighted smile found its way onto his face.

It was indeed a friend of Lloyd and Colette's. Lloyd bolted over to his friend and gave him a solid high five that made a loud smacking sound. "How've ya been, Genis?" he said as if all his problems were suddenly gone.

"Not too bad," Genis said casually. "How have you and Colette been doing collecting exspheres?"

"Great!" Colette said excitedly as she ran over to both of them, obviously happy to see them as well.

Genis's clothes still remained the mix of blue and white, but his voice had grown a tad deeper. The reunion had become so touching between the three kids that Lloyd and Colette had forgotten there was another person there.

"Professor!" Lloyd said when he looked up and saw Raine smiling at the group of friends. She was standing there with her arms crossed, looking exactly the same as Lloyd remembered her.

"Good to see you again, Lloyd and Colette," Raine said pleasantly.

The celebration was going along great until Genis looked up and acted like he was surprised about something. "Whoa, is that Kratos over there!" he asked excitedly, pointing to Kratos as he still stood at the end of Sybak, waiting to leave.

"Yeah, that's him," Lloyd said normally. "He says he got here through some trans-watchamacallit."

Raine didn't seem too surprised to see Lloyd still wasn't too bright, but she took it as something humorous this time instead of something aggravating.

When Kratos truly realized that Raine was there and willing to talk to them, he suddenly walked over to her.

"Raine, perhaps you can help us with something," Kratos said. "We were doing research yesterday on someone and found nothing. Would you be of some assistance?"

"I could try," Raine said, sounding a little concerned by how serious Kratos was talking. "What is it?"

"Let me explain inside," Kratos said, walking back inside the research academy.

The two adults walked inside the academy, leaving Genis, Lloyd and Colette outside with nothing to do. Lloyd was the first one to speak.

"So, what exactly were you guys doing in Sybak?" Lloyd inquired.

"We were still on our way trying to make it easier for half-elves like us to live without being discriminated against," Genis said. "Raine and I just went back to Asgard, but you'd be surprised how rude those people can be when we tried to talk to them. So we decided to come here where we could talk to the more _sensible_ people about what we're trying to do."

"Well, I hope you can find a way to do it," Lloyd tried to encourage but not really knowing what else to say.

"What are you two doing here?" Genis shot back.

Lloyd and Colette looked at each other for a while, a bit nervous about whether or not they should actually explain it. Before Colette could say anything, Lloyd spoke up.

"You see, Colette and I got sidetracked by some pirates when we were out at sea looking for exspheres, and because of it we got stranded on an island. A boat came by the very next day to save us, but it turned out to be a war ship. There was this guy on it named Kayne who said he was fighting a war against our world."

"_Our_ world?" Genis said. "Does that mean he was from another world?"

"Yeah," Lloyd said. "He told me comes from a place called Tiberia, and that our world is trying to destroy it."

"Destroy it!" Genis said. "Why would we want to destroy their world? I've never even heard of a place called Tiberia until just now!"

"I know," Lloyd said. "It doesn't make much more sense to me, either. I don't even know _why_ the new worlds are at war."

All three kids looked pretty confused by what was going on. None of them knew any details about the war except that it was happening and that Tiberia could be destroyed if they didn't do something about it.

"Well then…why's Kratos with you?" Genis asked.

"He's probably just trying to help us and thinks we're not capable of handling this on our own," Lloyd said.

"Which is really nice of him!" Colette said, trying her best to make a more positive note on what was going on.

"Yeah, but why'd he want Raine to go in with him?" Lloyd asked.

"Raine's pretty smart," Genis answered. "He probably just wanted to see if she could help him with research and if she knew anything."

Just for hearing that, something went off in Lloyd's mind. "Knew anything"…did they even know anything now? It was then that it struck Lloyd that they were completely in the dark.

None of them knew anything about what was going on. Lloyd had previously realized that all they knew was that there was a war going on, but how little did that mean? They had no idea why Stromm wanted to destroy Tiberia, or even how he was planning on it. And who was truly going to be their antagonist here? Did Stromm have a good reason for wanting to destroy Tiberia? He must have-after all, Kratos said that Stromm doesn't seem like someone who would destroy an entire world and not have a reason to do it.

Still, how was Stromm going to even destroy Tiberia, if he was going to destroy it at all? He'd obviously need some giant weapon to destroy an entire world. Did he even have that kind of weapon, or when Kayne said Stromm was going to destroy Tiberia, did he just mean Stromm was going to take his troops in and completely annihilate it?

And how was the one who the group should really be worried about? There could be no justifying Stromm wanting to destroy Tiberia and ending all those people's lives unless the Tiberians truly proved to be a great threat. And didn't Kayne seem a little suspicious when they first met him? There was just something about him…

Who was their real enemy? How could Stromm possibly destroy Tiberia without a great weapon? Where was Stromm's secret base? And was it really best for Lloyd, Colette and Kratos to get themselves involved in all of this? Maybe they should let Stromm just do as he pleases. After all, he _should_ have a good reason for trying to destroy an entire world. But how was that fair to all the civilians? Maybe the trio should step in and defend Tiberia, because an entire world's destruction could not possibly lead to a good ending. But then, what would happen if Tiberia won? What would happen to their world? To Aselia?

After all these unanswered questions started racing through Lloyd's mind, he got very confused and annoyed about being oblivious to what was going on. Then, an obvious solution to the problem came to him, and it sounded surprisingly simple for what it could accomplish.

"Hey Colette," Lloyd said, breaking the awkward silence. "Don't you think we should be trying to find a way to stop the war altogether so that neither side has any people who die?"

"Yeah!" Colette said. "But…how are we going to stop a war that's between two whole worlds?"

"I…don't know," Lloyd said, looking down at the ground.

The mood in Sybak seemed very cheerful, but it was hard for Lloyd to find anything to smile or be cheerful about. This problem seemed to just explode out of nowhere. The worst part was that it wasn't even _his_ problem, but he couldn't help but feel the need to think about it. After all, this was once again a problem that had the fate of an entire world at stake.

After a very long while, Kratos and Raine popped out of the academy.

"Lloyd, Colette, come in here," Kratos ordered sternly.

"What!" Genis said. "I want to come in, too!"

Kratos grunted. "Very well, but you realize you're not going to be getting involved in this like we are?"

"I know, just please let me hear what you've found out!" Genis pleaded, sounding more desperate than anyone had heard him sound in a while.

"He said it was all right," Raine said in a comforting tone. "All right, all of you come in here. Kratos and I have some information that might point us in the right direction in all of this."


	8. Traversing the Mountain

All the younger group members had just run inside the academy, desperate to hear the news that the Auburn-haired Seraphim had to report. Unfortunately, they were all let down by what he had to say.

"I regret to say Raine and I were unable to come across any new information," Kratos said with a rather-flat face when everyone walked in. He watched as disappointment flooded all of his former comrades' expressions.

Just as it looked like all that waiting was for nothing, Kratos suddenly spoke out. "But listen to me. Just a little while ago, a thought came to me. I may know somebody who could have information on Stromm's whereabouts."

"Really?" Lloyd asked, hope filling up his eyes. "Who?"

Kratos didn't respond. Instead, he took out his teleporter and pressed the button on it. Instantly, blue lights started swirling around everybody in the room, making a loud, sci-fi like sound.

"What the?..." Genis said to himself as he looked at the blue lights as they engulfed him.

Lloyd didn't say anything while Colette was on the verge of screaming out of terror. Raine was amused by their antics, but Kratos was taking the entire situation seriously.

Finally, the blue lights collapsed around everybody. There was a bright white flash around everybody when the lights collapsed, and in the blink of an eye, they were gone.

Before anyone could react, they were suddenly able to see again and the bright blue lights were gone from around them. Lloyd, Colette, Raine and Genis all looked very confused about what just happened and even slightly scared, but Kratos looked relatively calm.

Lloyd was confused about the entire thing, but eventually realized that that was exactly what the teleporter was supposed to do. Looking down at the ground, he saw that he was standing on a large strip of multicolored stone. The disturbing part was that beneath the ground, and all around them, was a swirling cloud of dark purple fog. The fog seemed to be floating up _towards_ them. They were seemingly walking on ground that was inexplicably supported over an abyss.

"Are we…on Derris-Kharlan?" Lloyd asked, not knowing what to believe.

"Yes," Kratos calmly replied. "Follow me."

Without even checking to make sure everyone was following him, Kratos began walking away to wherever it was he planned on going. Genis, Raine and Colette followed him without much trouble, but Lloyd just stood there like an idiot, not knowing what the heck was going on. It took until everyone was quite a distance away from him before he started running after them.

The entire place felt very disturbing to Lloyd. For some reason, he didn't mind the abyss and the dark, swirling fog. No, it was all the angels that he was running by. They still seemed lifeless and emotionless. It was very weird seeing things that were living but having no sensation of being alive. It was almost scary.

Lloyd finally caught up to everyone in his group, and the walk continued for a while longer. The only sound that could be heard was the dead silence, with the exception of people's shoes being heard as they trotted across the stone ground of Derris-Kharlan.

Finally, Kratos seemed to get to where he wanted everyone to be. They were standing at a dead end on their path, but standing a few feet in front of them was a person. The person was wearing a long cloak. Although no one could see the front side of him, it was obvious his hands were cross. He had his back to them for a very long time and looked a lot like a statue due to the lack of movement. His hair was a strange color of blue and was tied in a ponytail that dangled down to the base of his neck.

As if he knew of their presence, the man turned around. Just as Lloyd suspected, it was Yuan: a former Seraphim himself and the leader of the Renegades.

"So, you've come," Yuan said plainly when he saw everybody. "Kratos, what did you say to them?"

"I've told them you'd have some information on a General named Stromm," Kratos calmly said to Yuan. Hearing the two emotionless people talk to each other sounded a lot like robots talking to each other.

"Stromm…" Yuan said, sounding as if he had just gone into deep-thought mode. "I haven't heard from him in a while."

"Heard from him?" Lloyd said, surprised. "You mean you know him?"

"Yes," Yuan said, looking at Lloyd. "When I was leading the Renegades to take down Mithos and any other Chosen, I was asking for Stromm's help and assistance. He seemed to make a valuable asset."

"Yeah, well he's not being that great now!" Lloyd said, throwing his balled fist in front of himself. "Right now, he wants to destroy another world!"

"What are you talking about?" Yuan asked as if Lloyd had said something that made no sense at all.

"Lloyd and I recently met Stromm," Colette explained. She proceeded to tell Yuan about everything that happened, from how they got stranded, to how Kayne met them and explained everything to them about the war between Tiberia and their own world, Aselia, to the brief standoff between them and Stromm on his ship.

"Tiberia?" Yuan asked. "I can't say I've ever heard of that world before. Do you know where it is located?"

"No," Lloyd said, shaking his head and closing his eyes.

Yuan made a small exasperated noise but looked completely normal. "Are you sure Stromm would want to do something like that?"

"There's no denying it!" Lloyd said with authority in his voice. Suddenly, he considered Stromm a huge threat, whether or not he knew what was going on in the war and why it was being fought. "He definitely looked like he was pretty hostile towards Kayne and the other Tiberians."

"Hmm," Yuan let out. "At any rate, you should consider yourselves incredibly fortunate, because I do happen to know a thing or two about Stromm. What is it that you need to know?"

"We have heard that he has a hidden base somewhere," Kratos said. "We think there may be information in that base about what he's trying to do, but we haven't the slightest idea where it might be, and I thought that perhaps you would."

Yuan seemed to tighten the grip on his arms. "And if I do?"

"We need you to tell us!" Lloyd said. "Otherwise, millions of innocent people on Tiberia could die! We _have _to know what's going on!"

"I have no need to explain it to any of you," Yuan said.

Kratos grit his teeth and stepped closer to Yuan. "Now that Mithos is gone, we have no further need to oppose each other. Please, tell us where Stromm's base is so we can figure everything out."

Yuan looked very annoyed, but eventually gave in. "Very well. I haven't been to Stromm's base in a while, but if nothing has changed, it should be hidden high in the mountains of Flanoir."

"All right!" Lloyd said, making a commanding pose with one his arms. "It's off to Flanoir then!"

Raine shook her head. "He still acts like such a child sometimes," she mumbled.

Kratos took out his teleporter, but Yuan took his out of his cloak and put it on the ground. That way, they'd be able to return to Derris-Kharlan when they were ready to.

Kratos hit the button on the teleporter and the bright blue lights surrounded everyone. They took to the lights much more calmly this time and allowed them to collapse atop them.

When the bright white lights flashed as the blue lights collapsed on each other. A heartbeat later, everyone was back on Aselia and in Sybak, the place they had just teleported from.

The walk from Sybak to Flanoir was a long one, and the group often had to take rest stops to regain their strength after walking for long distances. Hours later, the group reached their destination: the outskirts and the mountains on the outside of the snowy city of Flanoir.

It started making all the group members sick to their stomachs, knowing that they would have to trudge through those freezing mountain paths. They weren't even sure that Stromm's base was still there, or if Yuan had just led them on a wild goose chase.

Just taking the first step on the mountains caused everyone to start worrying about what was going to happen. The freezing air and winds were biting at anyone's skin that wasn't covered by clothes. Everyone felt like their face was going to get frostbitten, except for Yuan and Kratos; both of them were able to take it like nothing was wrong at all and that the rest of the group was acting like a bunch of babies for letting the cold get to them.

The entire group had no choice as they persevered traversing through the mountains. As they got higher and higher, it got harder to breathe. Genis and Colette were starting to get exhausted a while up, and Raine and Lloyd had to act as the motivators to keep them going.

Yuan seemed to have a surprisingly high amount of confidence in where he was taking them. There were several mountains all around the Flanoir region, but he was sure that Stromm's base was in the one they were currently walking through. Lloyd would want to rip Yuan's face off if he was wrong…

A while into the hike, everyone except Kratos and Yuan got exhausted and they wanted to take a break. Even though it was very uncomfortable, they all sat down on top of the snow. Since they were fairly high up, the snow was more solid, so it was more like sitting on a sheet of ice.

There was a long silence filled with the sound of the wind howling and the snow blowing around. No one said anything, and none of them dared speak the idea that maybe Yuan had led them on the wrong trail.

Finally, Yuan broke the silence. "Can I ask you guys a question?" he said.

Everyone looked at Yuan, then all of them nodded their head. A lot of them were too exhausted to say anything.

"Just how did you figure out Stromm was currently at war?" Yuan asked as if he were in an interrogation room. "Because I have not heard anything about a war-at all."

"Yeah, because you live on Derris-Kharlan," Lloyd said in a "you-should-know-this" tone. "You haven't been here for months. I guess a bunch of stuff has happened since then."

Yuan made a small smirking noise, then turned his back to Lloyd and the group and took a few steps forward, his arms crossed.

With no one knowing what to say, Kratos decided to speak up. "I think everyone is ready. Let's continue following Yuan."

Before seeing if anybody had any objections, Kratos walked towards Yuan and Yuan automatically started walking forward. Not wanting to stay lost in those mountains, the group had no choice but to get up quickly and followed the two Seraphim.

The group continued to walk higher and higher up the mountain, and everyone was getting very nervous about how high up they were in the mountains and how slippery the trail was getting. One wrong move and the ballgame was over…

"I am very sure we're close to it now," Yuan assured everyone.

"But we've reached the top of the mountain now!" Genis yelled, now very annoyed. "I can't even see the ground from here!"

It was true that they had climbed up almost the entire mountain. To get to the very top, they'd only have to climb maybe another hour or so, which wasn't so bad compared to nearly spending half a day trying to climb the mountain where Yuan thought Stromm's hideout was.

"Do you want to just go home now?" Yuan asked Genis in a commanding way. "Because I couldn't care less if you just slipped and fell."

Genis grit his teeth, but Lloyd looked at Genis and non-verbally told him to calm down.

Without saying another word, Yuan continued leading everyone up the treacherous path on the mountain. Everyone followed him as if they sheep that were being herd.

At a seemingly random point, Yuan just stopped as if he hit an invisible brick wall. He then looked around at the mountain around them and looked as if he knew where he was but couldn't quite figure out where _exactly_.

Finally, Yuan looked at a slab of rock that was covered in snow and sheeted with ice. He put out his hand and started charging up a ball of energy in it, and then fired it at the rock. The ice and snow got blasted off, but the rock itself didn't look like it suffered any damage.

A bit surprised by the rock not shattering, Yuan tried attacking it again, but it still didn't show any signs of breaking or chipping or cracking. He then crossed his arms and even looked like he was about to smile.

"This is it," Yuan said. "If we can break this rock open, it'll take us right into Stromm's headquarters."

"But that rock looks really strong," Colette whined. "Lloyd, try breaking it!"

Lloyd took out his material blades and started bombarding the rock with them, but the rock still showed no intention on breaking.

"Don't tell me we came all this way for nothing," Genis complained, looking angrier than anyone had ever seen him before.

Everyone tried their best attacks on the rock: from Colette's judgment, to Genis's Indignation, to Raine's Photon, to Kratos's Super-Lightning Blade. Unfortunately, the rock would break.

"I see Stromm still keeps his base fortified," Yuan said.

Lloyd looked at the giant rock and saw how breakable it was. Almost like she was reading his mind, Colette spoke up. "Lloyd will come up with something! Right, Lloyd?"

Lloyd looked at the rock, and then he smiled as if he thought he had just come up with a brilliant idea.

"Lloyd!" Colette said excitedly as she clapped her hands together. "You know someone who can break this, don't you! Who is it?"

Lloyd looked at Colette in a pleased way. "Who else?"


	9. An Unexpected Attack

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been taking longer than usual to update, but I've been busy. For the past few nights I've had a lot of houseguests over and I've been working a lot. I've also been obsessively trying to beat Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (which I did last night!), so this is my first real opportunity to sit down with no one around for a while. Hopefully I'll get the updates in faster now.

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Lloyd was about to lead everyone down the freezing mountain path to where he thought they would find someone who would be able to help them knock the rock down in front of Stromm's hideout.

But just as they were leaving, Yuan pulled something out of his cloak and placed it on the snow that was almost cold enough to give someone frost bite just by touching it.

"What was that?" Lloyd asked when he saw Yuan put the object down.

"That was my teleporter," Yuan answered. "Now that we've located Stromm's base, we can transport to it at any time so we can make a quick strike, but only if a teleporter is present."

Basically, if the group were to use Kratos's teleporter, it could take them to Derris-Kharlan or where the other teleporter was, which was where Yuan was leaving his.

After that, the group began their treacherous voyage back down to the bottom of the mountain. Lloyd seemed surprisingly confident with where he was leading everybody. Just about everyone in the group was wondering how Lloyd could think of someone with the strength to destroy that rock but be willing to do it at the same time.

The walk down was almost harder than the walk upwards, in some respects. It was more slippery on the way down, and it was harder to keep a solid footing on the ground when walking. It was almost easier to slip walking down than it was when walking up.

The group finally made it to the bottom of the mountain, and they were all exhausted. But because of what they were doing, they didn't have any time to stop and rest. They had to keep following Lloyd, hoping that he knew what he was doing and where he was leading them.

After a long while, everyone was tired and about to give up.

"Lloyd!" Genis whined, "we've been walking for hours! Are we almost there?"

"Yeah," Lloyd said. "Just look in front of you."

Genis lifted his tired eyes up and tried to focus on what he saw in front of him. He saw what looked like a giant building overlooking a cliff with water at the bottom. Behind the building were amusement park rides and a long beach.

"Why'd you bring us here?" Yuan asked. His voice was still the same noise level, but it was full of irritation and anger. It was obvious just listening to it that he thought Lloyd made a bad decision and led them all on that long walk for nothing.

"You guys really don't know?" Lloyd asked. "Don't you recognize that place?"

"Of course!" Colette cheerfully said. "It's Altamira. But, who's in there that could help us destroy that rock…OH! I KNOW NOW!" Colette excitedly started clapping her hands together as if all the exhaustion from the walk was gone.

"Would someone mind explaining what's going on?" Yuan asked. But before he could finish his sentence, he saw that everyone had walked into Altamira without him. He grumbled angrily seeing everybody leave him out there. He quickly walked after them.

The beach resort looked just as lively as it did when they last left it. People were lying on the beach and relaxing, enjoying the sun or swimming in the ocean. The weather seemed a lot better inside Altamira for some reason than before they walked in. There wasn't a single person in the entire place who wasn't smiling or looking like they were having a good time.

But Lloyd and his companions ignored everything going on around them and instead walked over to the monorail driver who took people to the amusement park.

"Can I take you guys somewhere?" he asked politely when he met the group.

"Yeah. We'd like to go to the Lazareno Building," Lloyd said.

"Very well, then. Hop in."

Everyone hopped onto the small tram. The driver bolted the machine into action as it loudly made its way to the large building that was the office of the company.

"Here we are," the driver cheerfully said.

The group thanked him for the ride and then hopped off. They opened the gates and crammed themselves in, and then hit the button to go to the top floor. The elevator slowly started crawling up the building until it reached the top floor. They were soon standing on the top of the building in a place that looked like a small, peaceful cemetrary.

In the center was a tombstone with a large, bulky man standing in front of it. Even though they only saw his back, you could tell that he was full of sorrow. His long blue hair was blowing in the soft breezes that brushed the building.

"Regal!" Lloyd yelled excitedly as he waved his hand in the air, even though the man couldn't see it.

The giant man turned around and saw the group. His eyes opened wide with surprise and disbelief. Even though his face still looked as grouchy and as unemotional as it did before, it was easy to see emotions were sweltering inside of him.

"Lloyd?" he asked in his deep voice.

"Regal. Long time, no see."

Regal still kept his distance from the group. He wanted to walk over to them and catch up, but it was like some unknown force was preventing him from doing so.

There was a very awkward silence for a while before Lloyd finally spoke up. "Regal, we need your help."

"My help?"

"Yeah. You see, there's this guy named Stromm who we think wants to blow up a planet called Tiberia, but we think we know where his base is. The thing is…his base is covered by a rock that none of us can smash, and we thought you would be able to do it."

"So you wish for me to help you break into someone's base in order to save a world?"

"Yeah, that's about right."

"Hmph," Regal smirked, looking down at the ground. "You sure seem very desperate. Very well. I will assist you if it will mean saving the lives on innocent people."

"Thanks," Lloyd said, a small smile spreading on his face. "I knew I could count on you."

"Where is this base hidden?" Regal asked.

"It's up in the mountains of Flanoir," Raine answered. "But we have a means of teleporting ourselves there without subjecting ourselves to the dangers of climbing it again."

"Very well," Regal said. "I shall do my best to aid you."

Just as everyone was about to leave and teleport to the top of the mountains, a loud scream was heard coming from the beach. Everyone looked over the side of the railing and they saw everyone fleeing the beach and screaming in horror, and it was soon clear why.

Coming in and washing on the shore of the beach were giant wooden ships. Bulky and hairy-looking people started jumping off of the boats and started attacking anyone who was in their way.

Colette gasped when she saw the acts of violence and hostility, but she gasped even louder when she saw one of them. He was a man who looked like he tannish-yellow skin with dark, messy hair. His sleeves and the bottom half of his pants were ripped off.

"Lloyd!" Colette yelled. "Is that…is that…"

"Yeah. The pirate who attacked us and got us stuck on that island," Lloyd said as he recognized him and his band.

"What do you think they want?" Colette asked in a scared voice.

"I don't know, but I don't think we should just let them have it! Come on!"

Lloyd clenched his fist and sprouted his bright blue angelic wings. He flew off the top of the building and charged down at the group of pirates. He saw to his pleasant surprise Yuan was doing the same thing. Colette and Kratos were also jumping in to do their best to fight off the pirates.

As Lloyd touched the ground, he pulled out his material blades and started charging in at any enemies and showed them no mercy.

He looked around and he saw Yuan had pulled out a giant blade and was swinging it around as if it were made of Styrofoam and was slaughtering anyone who got close. Kratos was also dishing out a fair amount of punishment, and Colette…well, Colette was barely able to take on more than one at once due to the slow speed of her chakrams.

Lloyd continued fighting off pirate after pirate until he was struck from behind. He turned around, and the pirate's captain was standing there with a sword to Lloyd's throat.

"Why are you even here!" Lloyd yelled, acting as if he didn't care the pirate could end his life with one quick cut.

"I need money!" yelled the pirate. "I need money to fund an assigned voyage!"

"An assigned voyage?" Lloyd asked, not sure what was going on.

"Yes! And the president of the company here seems to have plenty of money! Take me to him, and I will spare your life."

"You bastard…" Lloyd muttered under his breath. He gave the pirate a sharp kick to the stomach and his sword came so close to cutting itself across Lloyd. As soon as the pirate was on the ground, Lloyd shot up and unsheathed his material blades once again and got ready to attack the pirate.

This time, the pirate rolled out of the way. He got up off the ground and he and Lloyd began to stare each other down. They glared at each other with a hostile look, but neither one of them actually swung their sword for a while.

Finally, the pirate just charged in savagely and tried to impale Lloyd with his sword. Lloyd ducked just in time and laid himself on his back. When the pirate was right in front of him, he kicked his legs and used them to flip the pirate over.

The pirate landed with a hard thud on the ground as Lloyd got up and prepared to stick his ice coffin right through him. But the pirate jumped up and gave Lloyd a hard punch to the face.

Lloyd groaned as he was walking backwards and temporarily knocked off guard. He looked up just in time to see the pirate about to fatally stab him, but then a voice was heard screaming "Fireball!"

Instantly, the pirate yelped in pain and ran around. Lloyd saw that the back of the pirate's pants were on fire, and it was actually pretty funny. The pirate had enough sense to run into the ocean to put the fire out, though.

It was then that Lloyd looked up and saw Kratos. Obviously, Kratos was the one who cast Fireball and possibly just saved Lloyd's life.

It looked like the pirate was going to come out of the water, but he stayed there for a while and started picking up any rocks he could find. He started chucking the rocks at Lloyd and Kratos as hard as he could, but it was easy for them to just dodge the rocks.

After the pirate had run out of rocks, he turned around and saw that Colette was lying on the ground and about to be killed by one of the less experienced pirates.

"You're dead, little girl!" the pirate said in a nasty voice. He was about to finish Colette, but Lloyd cast a quick demon fang and knocked the pirate to the side.

A huge look of relief filled Colette. "Thanks, Lloyd," she said almost like nothing had happened.

The two of them ran over to Kratos. He looked like he something to say.

"It would appear as though we've fought a lot of them off," he said. "Have either of you seen Yuan?"

"No," Lloyd said. "I hope he's alright."

"I'm fine."

The three of them turned to the side. Yuan was standing there in front of a large pile of dead pirates, all of whom the trio supposed Yuan had just killed in the fight. Yuan looked pretty cocky when he stared at them.

"I don't think they'll be of any more of a threat," Yuan remarked. "I think we got the last of them."

"So it would seem…" Kratos said as if something was concerning him.

Then Lloyd remembered something: what happened to the pirate captain? He was going to finish the captain, but he wound up trying save Colette from the pirates instead. Where did the captain go?


	10. Inside the Mountain Base

The entire beach became quiet as Lloyd, Colette, Kratos and Yuan looked around for any pirates who they hadn't defeated. They all thought they had finished all the pirates until Lloyd raised the question of where their captain went.

Turning around, the quartet saw the pirate captain. He was back on his ship with any pirates that the group hadn't killed.

"You will pay for this!" yelled the captain as he started sailing his ship away.

Lloyd grunted and started running after him, but Yuan put his arm out in front of Lloyd and held him back. "Let him go," Yuan softly commanded. "We can take care of him later. Right now, we need to infiltrate Stromm's base."

Lloyd watched as the boat continued to sail out of sight. He really wanted to finish off the captain of the pirates, but he knew Yuan was right. They had more important things to worry about now, like getting into Stromm's hideout.

The group returned to the building where Regal and everybody else was. Lloyd and Colette looked kind of tired, but Yuan and Kratos acted as if nothing had happened.

"Who was that?" Genis asked.

"I don't know," Lloyd admitted. "But Colette and I encountered the same ones when we were looking for any exspheres."

"Quite fascinating," Raine said, touching her chin and looking at the ground.

"We don't have time to chat," Yuan insisted as he turned his attention towards Regal. "We have to get to Stromm's base."

Everyone agreed in unison. Kratos pulled out his teleporter and asked everyone if they were ready. When they all said that they were, he hit the button. The bright lights started swarming around all of them, and there was a bright flash. An instant later, they were all on the tip of the snowy mountain as they had been before Lloyd led them back down.

"Why might this base be located so high?" Regal asked in his deep and sad-sounding voice.

"Security measures, I would assume," Kratos answered.

Regal looked at the giant boulder that blocked what appeared to be an entrance into the mountain and hopefully into Stromm's base. "Is this it?"

"Yeah," Lloyd casually replied.

"Very well," Regal answered. "Stand back, everyone."

Obeying, the rest of the group walked backwards but kept their eyes on Regal as he prepared to blow the rock to smithereens. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and then put out both of his hands.

As he did so, a giant blast of energy erupted from those hands like a vicious explosion. It was the same move that Regal had used to free himself and Lloyd when they were trapped in Welgaia only a few months before.

"Impressive," Yuan muttered under his breath.

The rock was practically vaporized after Regal attacked it. Small chips of it were the only thing that remained, and the group watched as the violent winds blew the tiny rock fragments over the edge of the mountain.

"All right!" Lloyd yelled excitedly.

The rock revealed a large hole in the mountain that led inside of it. The inside of the mountain definitely looked like it was a building, removing all doubt that Yuan was indeed correct about where Stromm's base would be.

Raine sighed when she saw how eager Lloyd was. Genis also seemed pretty exasperated as well.

"Let's see how long that attitude holds up," Genis whispered into Raine's ear.

As if he was doing something that didn't matter at all, Lloyd started walking rather quickly inside the hidden-mountain base, leaving all of his companions staring at him. Apparently, they all thought he was about as mature as he was the day the oracle first came for Colette. The group cast quick glances at each other before they walked in more carefully after him.

The inside of the hidden base was huge. The floors were made of solid medal that seemed to make pretty loud sounds when they were stepped on hard. The walls were bare and empty and very dark. The whole place looked dark and complex. There was absolutely nothing in it at all, other than the floors and walls and any side doors.

"Whoa," Genis whispered. "This place is huge."

"Yes," Yuan said. "It's just as big as I remember it. The base goes down to the bottom of the mountain. At this rate, finding Stromm will be like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"Yuan, I'm sorry, but you _really_ got to start saying some more original stuff," Lloyd said sorrowfully to the Seraphim.

Yuan looked and Lloyd with an angry face, then made an aggressive "hmph!" sound and turned his back.

"Enough," Kratos scolded. "If we're going to look for Stromm, we'd better split up. We'll cover more ground that way. And remember: don't do anything to hurt Stromm. He's no good to us if he's dead."

"All right!" Lloyd said.

Lloyd was ready to run off and start looking for Stromm, but just as he started running away, Kratos's voice once again stopped him. "Yuan, I'd like you to come with me."

Yuan silently agreed and the two Seraphim started walking down the long, echoing hall through Stromm's base. The remaining group members just watched, then quietly wished each other the best of luck and walked in their separate directions.

Lloyd started walking down the long, dark hall alone. He was pretty nervous, but he was doing his best to hide those emotions. After all, they would only cause him trouble.

It was then he started wondering why Kratos wanted Yuan to go with him. Did they both have some sort of plan, or did Kratos just think Yuan would be a valuable asset to him when searching through the base?

Whatever the reason was, that was what was happening. Lloyd continued walking through the winding base, having no idea where he was going. This was more complex than any base or ranch he had to infiltrate during his journey. (hopefully with the exception of Rodyle's)

When Lloyd was walking through the base, he occasionally saw doors that led to side rooms. However, most of the doors were sealed shut and wouldn't open, and the ones that _were_ open didn't have anything of value in them.

It felt to Lloyd like he had searched forever before he had come up with anything. He was about ready to give up searching for Stromm, hoping that he wasn't getting himself lost in the giant mountain base.

Just as Lloyd was ready to turn around, he saw one giant room in at the end of a long hallway. Lights were flashing on the inside of it, so there was definitely some activity going on inside of it.

Heart now pumping, Lloyd started slowly walking towards the giant room, anxious to see who-or what, was in it. When he was finally at the front of the door, he saw that there was a giant computer in it with a figure standing in front of it. Since the screen was bright, the figure in front of it looked more like a silhouette.

"Stromm?" Lloyd asked lightly and even with some nervousness in his voice.

The figure shot around, revealing a man with little hair and was wearing a white military suit. There was no mistaking it: it was Stromm, all right.

"What are you doing here?" Stromm demanded sharply. Apparently, he didn't recognize Lloyd at first.

"Why should I tell you!" Lloyd said, trying to act as tough as possible. "You've got some explaining to do, Stromm!"

"Explaining?" Stromm said in a surprised voice. "What do I have to explain, other than why I'm going to call the guards in to take care of you?"

"Tell me why you want to destroy Tiberia so much!" Lloyd yelled angrily.

"I don't have to explain that to you," Stromm calmly insisted. He then started looking at Lloyd in a very strange way. His expression would not be able to give anybody any indication on what thoughts were running through his head. "Have we met before? You look somewhat familiar."

"And if we have?" Lloyd asked in a smart-aleck tone, crossing his arms.

Stromm let out a small "hmmmmmmmmmmm" as he continued staring at Lloyd, trying to put the pieces together. Then, it looked like a light went on in his head.

"Ah! Now I remember you!" Stromm said. "You're that kid who attacked my boat a day or two ago, weren't you!"

"And if I was?"

"Don't lie to me," Stromm said in a cold way. "I remember you, and nothing you say is going to make me change my mind."

"Whatever floats your boat."

"What were you doing on my ship, anyway?" Stromm assertively asked Lloyd.

"You want the truth?" Lloyd said, starting to sound a bit edgy. "All right, I'll tell ya. My friend and I were sailing and we were sidetracked by some stupid pirates and ended up getting stuck on an island. Then that boat that we were on came by and rescued us. A guy on board told us all about how you were going to destroy his world!"

"Who told you that?" Stromm asked, starting to sound really annoyed.

"None of your business!" Lloyd sharply replied. "What makes you think it's okay to destroy an entire world! Don't you know there are innocent lives that are going to be lost if you do that!"

"Don't tell me what's right and wrong!" Stromm yelled, obviously starting to get angry as well. "You don't even know what you're talking about! You're not fighting in this war, so why don't you just back off and let me do what I need to do?"

"You don't need to destroy that world!" Lloyd yelled. "How could that possibly lead to a happy ending if Tiberia gets destroyed?"

"I have no need to explain myself to the likes of you," Stromm bluntly said. "You don't know what's going on, do you! Do you even know why we're at war with Tiberia?"

"Well…no," Lloyd said.

"Exactly. You don't even know the purpose of this war being fought, and yet you feel you should interfere with it. You're not from Tiberia yourself, are you?"

"Did I say I was!" Lloyd angrily yelled. "I told you, I was only on their ship because my friend and I were stuck on a deserted island and they rescued us! And then you started attacking. As far as I know, you're the one who started this whole thing!"

Stromm didn't even take a breath before he started talking back. "A likely story. You expect me to believe they just picked you up when I came and attacked? You're a Tiberian spy, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not!" Lloyd insisted.

Stromm gave Lloyd a cold glare. "You definitely don't _look_ like you're Tiberian, so I'll let you off with a warning. Get out of my base, now!"

"Or what?" Lloyd said, challenging the commander in front of him.

Stromm pulled out some of the metallic explosive pellets that he used to fight Lloyd and Colette the first time they met and got ready to throw them.

"Or else I'm going to have to make sure you _don't_ leave."

Lloyd got ready to draw his material blades and battle Stromm. But then he remembered what Kratos said: "_Don't do anything to hurt Stromm. He's no good to us if he's dead._"

Remembering those words, Lloyd slowly loosened his grip on his swords. He wanted nothing more than to give Stromm a piece of his mind and save Tiberia by doing so, but he didn't dare go against Kratos's orders. Besides, he didn't want any trouble.

"This isn't over," Lloyd said through gritted teeth. He slowly started backing out of the room but never took his eyes off Stromm.

Stromm seemed to be sneering at Lloyd as he walked out. Stromm was making a disturbing smile as he watched his new adversary walk out of the room.

Lloyd had finally shuffled his way out of the giant computer room with Stromm in it and walked a short distance away from it.

"Dammit. He's gonna pay for this!"


	11. Stolen Information

Angry about how his encounter with Stromm went over, Lloyd started walking towards the front door to the mountain base. As he walked to the front door and as he sat there, waiting for the others, he thought about what he thought he should have said to Stromm. He knew there was no point in worrying about it, now that it was over.

Slowly but surely, everyone came back, all looking very disappointed. Yuan and Kratos were the last to show up. Lloyd couldn't tell if they had found anything useful, due to how emotionless and neutral they always were.

"Anyone find anything?" Kratos inquired as he talked to everybody when they came back.

"No," replied all of their companions in unison, disappointment clearly written all over them.

"Hmmmm," Kratos said. "I regret to say that neither Yuan nor I found anything of value either."

Everyone groaned. They were all very angry that they had just trekked through the mountain for so long and went through so much and got so excited to find the hidden base, only to have it end without finding a thing.

"I think all of you people should go back to your business," Yuan stated as he looked at all of Lloyd's companions. "It looks like we've done all we can, so don't feel ashamed or anything like that."

Everyone looked at each other with the same basic expression that screamed "What did he just say!", but no one actually said a word.

"Go!" Yuan commanded. "You've done everything you could to prevent this war, so don't feel like you haven't done a thing. Come on, Kratos and I will teleport all of you back to where you need to go."

After a bit of groaning, Yuan and Kratos brought everyone back to the ground. Genis, Colette and Raine were left in Iselia while Regal was sent back to Altamira. Lloyd was the last one to be dropped off. He was about to walk into Iselia with Colette until Kratos stopped him.

"Lloyd, I would like you to come with me," he said.

"What?" Lloyd asked, not sure he understood what Kratos was talking about.

Kratos took out his teleporter from his purple cloak and hit the button in it. Instantly, he and Lloyd were whisked away by the bright blue lights. They collided and flashed, sending Lloyd and Kratos away from Iselia and to wherever Kratos wanted to take him.

A moment later, the bright lights cleared and the two found themselves hovering over an infinite abyss with dark swirling clouds. The entire place felt menacing and lifeless, nothing more than a giant slab of rock inexplicably floating in the middle of nowhere.

"Where are we?" Lloyd asked with little life.

"We're on Derris-Kharlan," Kratos casually replied. "Follow me."

Without saying another thing, Kratos started walking away. Once again, Lloyd could only follow and hope Kratos wasn't doing anything that would lead to trouble. There was something really weird going on, and he wanted to find out what it was.

Kratos ended the moderately long walk at a dead end. Standing at the edge of one of the slabs of rock was Yuan. He was standing there with his arms crossed and staring right at the two of them.

"What's going on?" Lloyd asked, completely oblivious to what sort of game Kratos and Yuan were playing.

"We're here to discuss a few things," Kratos said. "You, Yuan and I have a few things we need to talk about, like what we found in Stromm's base."

"But…you guys didn't find anything in there," Lloyd insisted. "You even said so."

"That was a lie," Yuan admitted.

"What?" Lloyd asked, now really confused about what they were talking about.

"Yuan and I found some information in records in Stromm's base," Kratos explained. "But Yuan and I agreed that we'd be better off not dragging the others into this. But we thought you should know Lloyd, considering you'd probably be the best asset out of the others."

"What?" Lloyd asked. "You guys actually found something?"

"That's what he just said. Do you listen at all?" Yuan criticized, not un-crossing his arms and keeping the same expression.

Lloyd gave Yuan a dirty look, then turned his attention back to Kratos. "Then, what'd you find?"

"When Yuan and I were going through Stromm's database and looking for any plans, we came across something interesting. We saw that he was currently looking for a giant island."

"Really?" Lloyd asked, surprised. "You mean to take a vacation or something."

Kratos kept a straight face while Yuan closed his eyes in disgust, looked down at the floor and shook his head.

"No," Kratos sternly replied. "According to his plans, he was looking for a giant island because he had heard that there was supposed to be a great source of power on it. A power greater than mana."

"Whoa," Lloyd said. "Do you think _that's_ what he needs to destroy Tiberia?"

"Most likely," Yuan said. "Kratos and I decided Stromm probably has some sort of weapon or device that can be devastating when used, but needs a lot of power before it can be put into operation. We both agreed that the power hidden on the island would be more than sufficient to fire the weapon and destroy Tiberia in no time."

"Then that means we're going to have to get to it before him!" Lloyd yelled. "Where's this giant island!"

"That's where the problems start," Yuan said. "The power is supposed to be hidden away on a giant island, but based on what Kratos and I found, a lot of the island is underwater."

"Really?" Lloyd asked. "How'd it get like that?"

"We don't know," Kratos answered. "We do know, however, that small parts of the island remain above the water. If what our research indicated was correct, three parts of that island should be above the water now. But, those parts would be big enough to be mistaken for an island now."

"I think I get it," Lloyd said. "So there are three islands that are actually part of a much bigger one, but the other part of it is currently underwater?"

"Precisely," Yuan said. "Which is why we're going to have to find that island out there and get the power before Stromm does. Finding that crystal before Stromm could actually put an end to the war."

"Why's that?" Lloyd said, not sure he knew what Yuan was talking about.

"If Stromm doesn't have the crystal, then he won't be able to fire that weapon. And if Stromm doesn't fire the weapon, the Tiberians would have nothing to fear and they could return to their world."

"Okay, I guess it makes sense," Lloyd said, trying to put everything the two Seraphim said together.

"We'd better go out and look for one of those islands now," Kratos said. "If we want to find the crystal before Stromm does, then we can't waste any time."

"Hold on a minute," Lloyd said, now sounding like something was wrong. "There are a bunch of islands out there. How are we going to know which ones are part of the big one?"

"I should have mentioned," Kratos started, "each of the islands that are above the water and is part of the larger one have mysterious statues on them."

Lloyd suddenly froze up. "A statue? What's it supposed to look like?"

"It's supposed to be tall and dark," Yuan answered before Kratos could. "And it's said to have the language of an ancient civilization written on it."

"That sounds exactly like something Colette and I saw when we got stranded on that island when that stupid pirate sidetracked us!" Lloyd yelled excitedly.

"You were?" Kratos asked. Even though his voice was barley any different, it was easy to tell he was gaining interest in what Lloyd was saying.

"Yeah!" Lloyd answered, the excitement in his voice not going down by any means. "Do you think the crystal was right there!"

"Highly unlikely," Kratos answered. Lloyd deflated with the remark. "But that statue may be of some help to us if we were to see it."

"Then it's settled," Yuan said. "We go looking for that island tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Lloyd asked, a little bit annoyed and surprised. "I thought you guys were just saying we should find the crystal as soon as possible."

"Yes, but you should rest, Lloyd," Kratos said. "You're going to need it if you're going to be searching for a small stone for a while."

"All right," Lloyd said coolly. There wasn't much else he could have said.

Yuan reached into his cloak and pulled out a small black device. "Here's my teleporter. I'm letting you have it so you can get back to Iselia."

"Thanks," Lloyd said, turning away from the two. He pushed the button on his teleporter and was instantly taken away by the blinding bright lights around him.

Yuan and Kratos watched as Lloyd left. When he was gone, Yuan looked at Kratos. "Do you suppose that crystal is…"

"Yes. There's no doubt in my mind," Kratos said before he let Yuan finish his sentence. Even though Yuan couldn't finish his thought, Kratos knew what Yuan was going to say.

"Do you think we should tell Lloyd?" Yuan asked.

"I think we should wait a little while," Kratos answered. "I don't want to risk it changing his mood towards looking for it at all."

Yuan didn't say anything, but he nodded his head.

Meanwhile, back on Aselia, Lloyd was just heading to Dirk's house to spend the night. And as always, he stopped on the way in to look at his mom's grave. It was very painful having to look at it, but Lloyd had gotten used to the pain after doing it for all those years.

Lloyd then went inside and proceeded to tell Dirk everything about what he had just learned. He mentioned how there was this one giant island that was partly underwater, and the parts that weren't underwater were big enough to be considered islands, but far enough apart to be considered separate as well. He also told Dirk about the mysterious statues that he saw. Lloyd mentioned to Dirk that the three of them had decided the statue would hold some sort of clue to the crystal.

"Sounds like you've got another tough journey ahead of you," Dirk said to Lloyd, but without any sadness or worry like you might expect from a parent. (or guardian)

"I don't know," Lloyd said. "How hard could it be looking for a simple rock?"

"Dwarven vow number twenty-one: never judge based on first impressions," Dirk said proudly.

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I'm hitting the sack. Goodnight, dad."

"Goodnight, Lloyd."

Lloyd made his way up the stairs and into the tiny loft that he considered his bedroom. He hopped back in his bed, his mind racing with the thoughts of what just happened and what he learned in Derris-Kharlan.

Lloyd had a bit of trouble sleeping, knowing that the next day would be like a giant treasure hunt, or so he thought. He didn't like the idea of having to spend an entire day looking for one rock on three separate islands, and he especially didn't think it would be any fun if he had to do it with Yuan and Kratos.

According to what Lloyd had heard that day, there was a crystal with tremendous power somewhere on one of the three islands that are actually connected and form one giant island.

Lloyd hoped that the crystal was hidden somewhere on one of the islands that was above the water, otherwise it would be hidden on a submerged part, which would be impossible to get. If worst came to worst, the crystal would indeed be underwater, but there had to be someway of getting it. Maybe they just needed a really great swimmer with a lot of stamina, or maybe there was a way of raising the island out from under the water? And if so, how? Did those weird statues have anything to do with it?

After a while, Lloyd finally got to sleep, ready to tackle the events the next day. Little did he know that tomorrow was a day that would start another journey that would once again hold the fate of everyone's life in his hands.


	12. Raising the Island

Before I begin, I would once again like to thank those who have reviewed my story. Thank you to Leppers, starry, Dragonwings, Crystal Adept and Weener. It's worth writing these chapters just to hear feedback from you guys. Thank you very much and please keep the reviews coming.

And also, I was going to wait until tomorrow to update this, but since today, July 13, is the two-year anniversary of when Tales of Symphonia was released in the US, I thought it was only proper that I update it on its birthday. Here's to two years of one of the greatest games of all time!

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When he finally fell asleep, Lloyd slept soundly through the night. His mind slowly slipped into a subconscious state where all his worries temporarily left him. He should have enjoyed that feeling, because that was the last time for a while he'd be able to sleep that calmly.

Lloyd snapped awake a few hours later to golden sunlight pouring into his bedroom. He groaned a little bit, and then dragged himself off the small mattress. He made his way down the creaking stairs, only to find Kratos was standing inside the house waiting for him.

"Come. Let's go," Kratos calmly said. He turned his back on Lloyd and started walking out the door.

"Ugh…I wish he'd stop doing that," Lloyd complained after seeing Kratos walk away from him before he had the chance to say anything.

Lloyd ran after Kratos outside and saw Kratos was once again waiting for him, this time, by the small bridge that people would cross to get into Dirk's yard.

"Wait!" Lloyd yelled. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to get as much information about those islands as we can. If we can do that, then maybe we'll figure out how to get to that crystal before Stromm does," Kratos coolly answered.

"That's great and all, but who would have any information?"

"Do you need to ask? We're going to Sybak. They're bound to have some information of those islands on record."

"I guess it's the best lead we've got," Lloyd admitted. "All right, it's off to Sybak then!"

Kratos smirked at how energized Lloyd was and how he knew it wouldn't last long. Lloyd began walking away, but Kratos stayed for a few moments.

Kratos turned his attention to the gravestone where his wife, Anna, was buried. His eyes filled with sorrow, and one would be able to see all the emotions that were probably flowing within him.

"Kratos!" Lloyd yelled when he was a fair distance from him, "let's go!"

Lloyd noticed how Kratos was staring at the tombstone, but for some reason, it looked like his gaze now drifted to the left of the tombstone, where there was nothing except dirt and some open space.

Kratos snapped awake when Lloyd called him and proceeded to follow his son out of Dirk's yard. Lloyd turned around and excitedly started walking forwards, but after just taking a few steps after him, Kratos stopped. Under his breath, Kratos uttered the words, _"Don't die, Lloyd._"

A while later, the two of them were walking into Sybak. They immediately headed for the research academy and planned on looking through the archives all day if they had to. This was turning into a serious matter, and any knowledge within that academy about those statues could prove to be the only thing stopping Stromm from destroying Tiberia.

As they walked into the academy and started tearing through book after book looking for any clue about the island, a familiar face appeared before them.

"Oh, hello," said a feminine voice from behind.

Lloyd and Kratos turned around and were greeted by a woman with dark blue hair tied into a ponytail and a thin structure. It was Cesara, the woman who the group had met when they were searching for information about Tiberia or Stromm. "I wasn't expecting to see you two again. Is there something I can help you with?"

Lloyd was about to speak up, but Kratos started talking before him. "I thank you for your care, but we can manage it fine."

Cesara looked very surprised at this remark and managed to squeak out, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Kratos plainly answered, trying to sound as polite as possible without his voice changing at all.

Cesara quickly nodded her head, and then walked out of the room, constantly looking back at Kratos and Lloyd as they persisted in doing their research.

The hours dragged on, and the two were getting more and more frustrated with the lack of information there seemed to be about the statues on the islands. After a long while, there were books poured all over the floor, some shut and some opened up to random pages.

"This isn't working!" Lloyd complained. "Why can't we find anything?"

"Lloyd, calm down," Kratos coolly commanded. "We're bound to find something sooner or later. Until then, the most we can do is keep looking for any information that might help."

After hearing this, Lloyd groaned and pulled out a book in a manner that looked like he had just about given up. But when he opened part of it up, his eyes widened and he suddenly looked excited.

"Kratos! I think I found something!"

Gaining interest, Kratos gently placed the book he was looking through down on the floor and walked over to Lloyd. "What is it, Lloyd?"

"It says here that we need the power of the summon spirits to activate the statues and to get the island to rise!" Lloyd yelled. "We could just have Sheena help us out!"

"But how would we know what statues were supposed to be activated by what summon spirits?" Kratos asked curiously. "Does the book say?"

Lloyd looked exhausted after that remark as he realized the book said nothing about it. But once again, he suddenly looked revitalized and anxious.

"When Colette and I got stuck on that island and we saw one of the statues, there was a symbol of a flame on it!"

"Do you supposed that means we'd need Efreet's power to activate it?" Kratos asked.

"Yeah!" Lloyd yelled excitedly.

"Very well," Kratos said. "Then it's off to Mizuho."

The duo walked out of the academy and started their long walk to the ancient city of Mizuho. They walked in and were surrounded by people wearing long cloaks and houses that seemed made of relatively weak material.

"Where do you think Sheena is?" Lloyd asked.

"Preparing to become Mizuho's successor, I would presume," Kratos calmly answered as he continued searching for their former companion again.

After the two continued walking for a while, they saw someone very familiar standing by the side and observing a few people doing work. She had hair tied in the back and was wearing purple clothes with a large bow behind her. Some would consider it a mystery how none of the Mizuho men seemed to be all over her.

"Sheena!" Lloyd yelled excitedly.

The person froze up like they had been shot with a stun-gun and slowly turned around. Indeed it was Sheena, and she was very excited to see two of her former companions.

"Lloyd! And…Kratos?" she asked, a bit confused about what he was doing there.

Kratos very briefly explained how he got back down onto Asliea by the teleporter he and Yuan made and how it works. But right after that, he began talking about the situation at hand and how she could be of assistance to them.

"So, let me get this straight…" Sheena started, making sure she knew what she was getting herself into. "There's this giant island that's underwater except for three parts, and those three parts could be considered islands themselves? And there's this great power somewhere on that island and a guy wants to use it to destroy a world called Tiberia?"

"That's right," Kratos said, confirming everything the former ninja just said. "Would you be willing to lend us your aid for this?"

"Of course!" Sheena said happily. "Anything for you guys."

"All right! Thanks, Sheena!" Lloyd yelled excitedly, looking like he was ready to start jumping into the air.

Kratos and Sheena didn't say anything as they watched Lloyd light up. While Lloyd was still excitedly celebrating Sheena helping them and possibly stopping Stromm from saving the world, Kratos turned to Sheena.

"Do you still have that E.C. boat? It may be of some use to us to get to that island," Kratos said.

"Sure do," Sheena said happily.

In no time, the three of them were out on the ocean in the boat and were looking for one of the islands. Unfortunately, Lloyd couldn't remember where they were, mostly due to the fact they were chased off their course by the pirates when they were trying to get to Flanoir. Plus, it was really a storm that washed them upon the island, so they had no control of where they were going. The result of not knowing where to go came to the trio having to just spend hours driving around on the water, looking for any weird islands.

At long last, Lloyd spotted something in the distance. It was a small mass of land sticking out in a random spot in the ocean. Obviously, it was an island, but was it one of the small islands that made up the larger one?

The group parked their boat onto the pearl-white sand of the beach and they all hopped off. Around them were literally thousands of trees that made up a small forest. No one knew what kind of animals could have lurked in that forest, and they honestly didn't care right now.

"So, where are these statues, anyway?" Sheena asked as they trudged through the deep and thick patches of trees, looking for one of them.

"We don't know," Lloyd said, turning his head to Sheena behind him but still walking forward. "But all we can do is keep looking."

As he finished saying this, Lloyd turned his head back in front of him, and the first thing that happened because of that was Lloyd smashing his face into something solid. "Ow!"

Lloyd walked back and clutched his nose, which received the most impact. "Man, what did I run into?"

"I dunno," Sheena said. "Looks like something tall and wooden…wait, is this one of those statues?"

"So it would seem," Kratos said quietly.

In front of them was a giant wooden pole with the same kind of runes and mysterious symbols on it. On the front of the pole was a symbol of a lightning bolt.

"That must mean Volt," Kratos deduced. "Sheena, if you will…"

Sheena nodded her head, and then walked over to the front of the pole. Then, in a voice full of determination and conviction, she screamed, "Hammer of godly thunder, I summon thee! Come, Volt!"

There was a bright flash of lights, and soon appeared a ball of electricity that Sheena knew all too well. "Volt, fire your power at that statue!"

Staying as quiet as ever, Volt fired a long stream of electricity at the wooden pole, just as Sheena commanded. The pole started lighting up, and it was easy to see that Volt firing his power at it was doing something.

"It looks like it's working!" Lloyd said excitedly. "Come on, Sheena, let's head to the other two!"

"Got it!" the former ninja said.

Lloyd, Kratos and Sheena started running back to the shore and hopped in their boat. They started sailing away from the island and off to sea. Luckily, they were able to figure out where the other two islands were in close proximity, due to the fact they were all part of the same island.

"Envoy from the dark abyss, I summon thee!" Sheena yelled when they reached the second one. Shadow, the summon spirit of darkness, appeared before them and started firing his mana at the statue on that island.

The group ran back to the shore of the second island and prepared to head for the third and final island until something ambushed them. A giant brown, furry looking monster with sharp claws on its hand and feet and red eyes jumped out at them, looking like it was ready to rip them to shreds.

"Oh, no," Lloyd said. "Not another one!"

"You've fought these before?" Kratos asked.

"Yeah. When Colette and I got stuck on that other island, a monster just like this one attacked us!"

"You two, head for the boat and get to the third island!" Kratos commanded, drawing his sword. "I'll take this one!"

"You sure?" Lloyd asked.

"I'll be fine. Just go."

"All right. Come on, Sheena!"

The two teenagers started running through the rest of the jungle and back out to their boat. Lloyd started driving it away, but as he started steering it away from the island, the question once again popped into his head that had surfaced the first time he met one of those monsters. What the heck was it, anyway?

After a short while, Kratos abruptly appeared and was flying over them. Lloyd stopped the boat so Kratos could float down onto their tiny boat. In no time, the trio was on the last island.

As Lloyd remembered, the symbol on the pole was of fire. Sheena summoned Efreet and ordered him to fire his mana at the pole.

Efreet obeyed, and like the two others, the wooden pole started glowing. As soon as that happened, a loud rumbling sound was heard.

"What's going on?" Lloyd asked as he started shaking violently with the ground under him.

"I don't know!" Sheena said.

"The island is rising," Kratos said calmly, causing Lloyd and Sheena to stare at him.

Then, as predicted, the ground underneath them started rising. The island looked like it was literally being lifted off the ground. The rumbling got louder; the sand started flying in the air and the trees were shaking.

After a few moments, the island had risen several feet. Now the trio could see the entire island in one solid piece, and it stretched further than the eye could see.

"Whoa," Lloyd said when he realized just how big the entire island was. "You mean to tell me we've got to look for one rock on this entire place?"

"Yes," Kratos said. "So let's start looking."

Lloyd, Kratos and Sheena were about to start looking for that one rock on the whole giant island before Sheena pointed something out. She was looking at something in the horizon, but she looked a little worried.

"Guys, it looks like we've got trouble," she said uneasily as she looked at something on the water.


	13. Race to the Crystal

"What is it, Sheena?" Lloyd asked casually when Sheena said that it looked like they had trouble coming. But the Eternal Swordsman didn't have to wait for his companion to reply before he understood what the problem was, either.

Kratos grunted when he saw what Sheena was pointing at. In the distance was a large, wooden boat that had a lot of screaming, dirty-looking men on it. It was the group of pirates Lloyd, Colette, Kratos and Yuan had to fight when they were going to Altamira to have Regal aid them in breaking into Stromm's base.

"Why can't those guys just leave us alone!" Lloyd yelled angrily as he drew his material blades, expecting the pirates to want to land on the island and cause them trouble for no reason at all.

"Lloyd, calm down," Kratos said.

Lloyd groaned, but decided that getting angry wasn't going to do anything to help.

But before the pirates could completely come in, Lloyd noticed something else on the water coming towards them, and it looked like it would only make the situation worse.

"Oh, no," Lloyd moaned.

"What?" Sheena asked.

Lloyd pointed to something that was making him surprisingly nervous. It was a large steel boat that looked very powerful and menacing, not to mention looking as if it were capable of destroying an entire town without much trouble.

"What's so awful about that boat?" Sheena asked.

"That's Stromm's boat!" Lloyd yelled. "What's he doing here!"

The trio just watched as the pirate ship and the large war ship slowly made their way on the shore. Lloyd wanted to completely destroy all of them and have no remorse doing so, but he had to fight the violent urges within him to not let that happen.

Stromm immediately hopped off his boat once it docked on the island. The pirate captain, too, got off as soon as his boat was nice and steady and not about to float away.

"What do you want!" Lloyd yelled at both of them.

"Why do you think?" asked the pirate captain, crossing his arms as his sea salt-stained and tanned arms glistened in the sunlight. "Isn't it obvious? Tell me: why are _you _here?"

"Why should I tell you?" Lloyd demanded. "Tell me why YOU are!"

"Fine, I will," the captain said in a bitter voice but with no sign of agitation or annoyance. "Now that you have been gracious enough to have this island show its true form, we shall be searching for the crystal that is said to have great power."

"Wait! How do you know about that!" Lloyd yelled.

"Don't underestimate my information," the pirate replied with a sneer.

"I had a feeling that was what you were doing," Stromm said in a cocky way. "Which is precisely why I had my boat follow you."

Things were not looking great for Lloyd's group now. There were now two others who knew about the crystal that was hidden somewhere on the island, and he had a pretty good feeling that both of them were dangerous and would prove very deadly if they were to get their hands on the crystal.

"Your efforts are going to go to waste!" yelled the pirate captain. "Because I'm going to find that crystal before either of you, and I'm making sure of that!" As he finished that threat, he pulled out his very long, sharp scimitar.

"Ha!" Stromm cackled. He then proceeded to running full force from his two enemies as he went into a deep patch of jungle behind them. The race to find the crystal had begun, and Stromm had gotten a head-start: the one who Lloyd _didn't_ want to find it.

Without wasting another second after that, the pirate fired into the jungle after him, desperate to reach the crystal before he did.

"Dammit!" Lloyd cursed. "We're already behind!"

"Lloyd, we have an advantage now," Kratos calmly said. "We have wings. We can fly into the air. We'll be able to see more ground and cover it a lot faster than those two."

"Yeah," Lloyd said. "All right, let's do it!"

Lloyd and Kratos tried spreading their wings, but for some reason, they wouldn't. (just like when Lloyd and Colette had been stuck on one of the smaller islands just a little while before)

"What?" Lloyd asked, now confused. "What's going on? How come our wings won't come out?"

Kratos grunted. He then softly mumbled under his breath, "I wonder if it's because…"

Lloyd and Sheena turned their attention towards the Seraphim. "Did you say something just now?" Lloyd questioned.

"It's nothing," Kratos insisted. "Come, let's make haste after them!"

Kratos started charging after them and into the jungle, relying now only on his instincts to take him to where the crystal would be.

"Well, shall we?" Sheena asked, looking at Lloyd. (she was trying to ask him if he was ready to go into the jungle and partake in the pursuit)

"Yeah," Lloyd casually replied. "Let's go!"

The two of them headed in different directions, but both of them still ended up running right into the large jungle. The sand was still damp after being submerged for who-knows-how-long, making it a bit easier to run instead of having soft sand absorb the shock and slow everyone down.

Lloyd was breathing heavy as he ran for a long time. He pushed branch after branch out of his way and had to be very careful not to lose his footing when he was running.

Occasionally Lloyd had to smash through a few branches and push a few heavier plants out of the way, but he wasn't letting anything slow him down. After all, he thought the fate of an entire world was at stake here.

Everything around him went disturbingly quiet. He didn't hear anybody else running as he went deeper and deeper into the jungle. He looked under several rocks, inside many stumps, and even started to dig every now and then in the sand. However, all his attempts to locate the mysterious crystal were all in vain.

Lloyd no longer knew how long he had been running through the winding jungle. He knew he was getting himself lost as the thick treetops started covering the sunlight more and more, making it harder for him to see the path in front of him.

He no longer cared that he had no idea where he was going, though. He was way too concerned for the lives of the innocent Tiberians that would be lost if Stromm were to succeed in finding the crystal first.

Now Lloyd's lungs were giving in, but he couldn't stop now. He may have been looking for a needle in a haystack, but then again, so were Stromm and the pirate captain. (whatever he wanted the crystal for)

The time finally came when Lloyd thought he saw a flickering light behind a thick patch of bushes. He stopped running and gently made his way over to it. His heart was racing, but he didn't know if it was from exhaustion of running or if he was excited with anticipation on what the soft cerulean glow was.

Lloyd made his way through the bushes, and there it was: the crystal that he had been searching for. He gasped and was unable to believe that right in front of him was the tool that would be used to destroy a world.

"Splendid work leading me here," said a voice behind the teenaged swordsman.

Lloyd turned around and Stromm was right there with his arms crossed and a malicious smile.

"Stromm, get out of here!" Lloyd commanded. "I got to this crystal first, and you're not having it!"

"Am I not?" Stromm asked. He then proceeded to tightening his gauntlets and getting himself ready for fighting. "I suppose I'm going to have to fight it from you."

"As long as you want this to be your burying place!" Lloyd said sharply as he drew his material blades.

Stromm made the final preparations on his two gauntlets as he prepared for combat. In no time, Lloyd and Stromm started their battle for the possession of the crystal.

Lloyd made a sharp jump in the air and was prepared to bring his flamberge down and strike Stromm with it, but Stromm jumped out of the way just in time.

Stromm took his armed fist and punched a tree branch with it, snapping it off its tree as if it were nothing more than a twig. He then picked up the giant branch and started using it as a sword.

Lloyd took both of his material blades and started slicing at the long wooden branch and was cutting off parts of it the same way a laser would cut through butter.

Now realizing he was in trouble, Stromm resorted to using a more deadly weapon. It was dangerous to use that weapon since he and Lloyd weren't too far apart from each other, not to mention there were several flammable things around them, but if he was going to win the fight, he had to use them.

Stromm reached into his pocket and pulled out the tiny explosive pellets that he had used when he and Lloyd battled each other on his boat.

Stromm chucked the small silver balls at Lloyd as fast as possible, and Lloyd was smart enough to know to duck. The balls went soaring over his head and landed in the grass, creating small explosions on impact.

Realizing Stromm wasn't afraid to use any weapon at his disposal, Lloyd started fighting much harder and was using every ounce of his strength to counter or parry any of Stromm's attacks.

Stromm soon realized that he couldn't keep using explosive pellets forever, because eventually, he would run out and be at a disadvantage. And there were only so many things he could use gauntlets for to defend himself from two very powerful swords.

Stromm was getting a little tired, but so was Lloyd, and the fight was beginning to slow down a little bit. Still, the two competitors never dropped their guard for one second, for it could mean their life if they stopped.

Stromm finally got back in the fight when he pulled out a single explosive pellet and flicked it onto Lloyd. It ignited as soon as it came into contact with Lloyd, sending the young swordsman flying backwards in a small explosion.

Stromm started sneering and made his way over to the glowing crystal before Lloyd shot up. He wouldn't have enough time to run over to Stromm before Stromm got the crystal, so he had to make do with what he could.

The best Lloyd could hope for now relied completely on his accuracy. Using every ounce of his upper body strength, he took his Ice Coffin and threw it at Stromm, hoping to impale him with it.

The sword missed and ended up getting stuck in a tree a few feet behind where the crystal was. Stromm flinched when he saw how close the sword came to piercing him, and it was long enough for Lloyd to make a run over to him and start fighting with only one sword.

Now irritated that he had come so close to getting the crystal but missing it, Stromm resorted to using his gauntlets to deal painful punches. Lloyd ducked very quickly and was hoping his reflexes would not fail him.

Unfortunately for him, it didn't last long. Lloyd got a solid blow right between the eyes and was knocked onto the ground, barely conscious. There was a small trail of blood on his forehead where the hit was taken.

Stromm snickered and went over to the crystal. He picked it up and started tossing it up a very short distance in the air and caught it back in his gauntleted hand with ease. At first he thought he would be making his way out of the jungle and back to his boat as fast as possible, but now that he saw how hopeless Lloyd was, he felt like taunting him for a while.

"So, how does it feel to lose?" Stromm said with a nasty and cocky look on his face.

"_You bastard…_" Lloyd managed to slowly utter as he struggled to get up.

"Hope you don't mind me taking this," Stromm said. He deposited the glowing rock into his coat. He then started making his way quickly back to his large ship.

After lying on the ground for a while and trying to recover his strength, Lloyd got up and grunted loudly. His forehead was searing with pain from where Stromm had hit him.

"Ugh…dammit!" Lloyd loudly yelled as he clutched his aching head. He looked at the palm of his glove and saw a deep speck of blood from where he had been clutching his injury. He then walked over to the tree and pulled out his Ice Coffin, and then sheathed it.

It was hopelessly over now. Stromm had the crystal, and he was now fully capable of destroying Tiberia with it.


	14. Planning the Raid

Lloyd just sat there, furious. How? How could he have let Stromm get the crystal? How could he let the lives of all those innocent Tiberians slip through the hole like that? How?

"Dammit!" Lloyd loudly screamed as he got up and kicked a large amount of dirt into the air. "Erg…"

Lloyd started running as quickly as he could and tried to catch up to Stromm before he got back on his boat and sailed away. He was exhausted enough from all the running he had done to get to Stromm and fight him, and he was exhausted from the fight itself. But the fact that Stromm won the fight infuriated Lloyd, giving him the necessary energy to be able to run with speed.

Lloyd once again had to shove bush after bush out of his way and tried his best to ignore any pains that he was feeling. He ran as fast as he possibly could and tried his best not to slow down, fearing that it would cause him to lose all his energy.

He finally made his way out of the jungle and back to the beach part of the island. There he saw the large warship with Stromm on it as it was floating out of reach. Stromm was standing on the deck and saw Lloyd running out. With the crystal in one hand, he took his admiral's hat off with the other and tipped it to Lloyd, mainly to taunt him.

Lloyd balled his hands into a fist and wanted nothing more than to sprout his angelic wings and fly over to Stromm's ship and tear him limb from limb. Then he remembered his angel wings didn't work for some reason, leaving him with no other option than to watch Stromm as he continued to sail away.

Lloyd had no idea how long he was standing there. He was exhausted after the long run and fight, but he was too angry to sit down and just try to calm himself. The area around him suddenly turned peaceful and no sounds were heard except for the soft crashing of the waves and the sound of a few birds singing and trees rustling. But just being around Lloyd, it was easy to tell he was very angry, and it changed the mood around him, even if it was still peaceful.

"Lloyd!" called out a voice from within the jungle.

The swordsman sorrowfully turned around and saw Kratos walking out of the jungle, also looking fairly disappointed.

"Lloyd, what happened?" Kratos asked.

"Stromm got away," Lloyd said. "He and I both found the crystal and fought, but he won and got it. Now he's back on the boat and probably far away now."

The father-son duo turned their head to the side and saw Sheena walking out of the jungle. She was walking pretty slowly and casually, but only because she heard that they had lost. She also looked like she was pretty upset with the result of the chase.

"So Stromm won?" she asked in a sad way.

"No, he hasn't!" Lloyd yelled, determination suddenly very clear and showing. "Just because he was the first to the crystal doesn't mean he's won the whole thing!"

Kratos and Sheena were suddenly awoken by Lloyd's rejuvenated attitude, and they were happy to see that Lloyd realized they still had some hope left. They soon turned hostile when they saw the pirate captain walk out of the jungle.

"You!" Lloyd yelled as he unsheathed his material blades.

The pirate captain gritted his teeth and was prepared to draw his scimitar, but then a voice interrupted them.

"Stop!" yelled a voice coming from inside the pirate ship. Lloyd and the captain turned their attention away from each other and to where they heard the voice. Leaning over the edge of the side on the pirate ship was Kayne.

"Kayne!" Lloyd yelled with his voice heightening in surprise. He turned his attention back towards the captain. "What have you done to him! If you've laid a finger on Kayne, I'll end your pathetic existence right here and now!"

"You little chump!" yelled the captain, and the two were ready to start fighting each other again.

"Lloyd, stop it!" Kayne commanded, jumping down from the boat. "Skelter, put your scimitar back! The last thing we need is you two hurting each other!"

Lloyd and Skelter continued to stare at each other for a while before Lloyd finally did what Kayne ordered him to and put his swords away.

Kayne walked over to Lloyd and looked like he had some explaining to do. "Lloyd, this is Skelter, a very experienced pirate who's been on the seas since he was five."

Skelter looked pretty proud of himself as Kayne was describing him. He crossed his muscular arms and nodded, causing his messy and long spiked black hair to go up and down with his head movements.

"Uh…hi,…Skelter," Lloyd uneasily said.

"Skelter and I are teaming up," Kayne said. "We were both trying to chase Stromm down before he could get the crystal and destroy Tiberia with it. And we would like you and your friends to help us, Lloyd."

"For what reason do you need us?" Kratos asked in an understanding voice.

"Now that Stromm has the crystal, we're going to need every bit of help we can get to save Tiberia," Kayne insisted. "Skelter may be strong and experienced, but when we go to stop Stromm, I fear the two of us might not be enough."

Lloyd turned around and looked at Sheena and Kratos. "Well? What do you guys think? Should we help them?"

"I don't know," Sheena said uneasily. "Don't these guys seem a little suspicious?"

"Sheena, their world's about to be destroyed!" Lloyd yelled.

"Actually, _my_ world's about to be destroyed," Kayne corrected. "Skelter is just helping me because that's the kind of guy he is."

"All right!" Lloyd said, his voice full of anticipation and excitement. "Let's do it!"

"Thank you," Kayne said in an apologetic tone. "I'm grateful that you're willing to risk your lives to try to save our world."

"Don't worry about it," Lloyd said. "We've taken down harder guys than Stromm before, I'll tell you that much."

"Okay," Kayne said. "Why don't we just get back on Skelter's boat and we can sail back to the mainland and think about what we're going to do?"

"That won't be necessary for us," Kratos said. "Sheena can summon Aska to fly her back, and Lloyd and I can fly back with our wings."

"Uh, Kratos, our wings aren't working. Remember?"

"Oh, really," Kratos said. Without any trouble at all, he then sprouted his. "Try yours, Lloyd."

Lloyd was awestruck, but decided to try it anyways. And sure enough, his wings worked perfectly fine as well."

"What?...But…"

"Lloyd, that crystal is far enough away from us now," Kratos explained. "When you and Colette were stranded on an island and you couldn't use your wings to fly off, that was because the crystal was too close to you and it neutralized your angelic powers. Now that the crystal is far from us, its power can no longer cancel out our own."

"Wait, how do you know this!" Lloyd yelled.

"I have my reasons why," Kratos bluntly answered, then commanded everyone go back to the mainland and start talking about the situation there.

The group headed back to the mainland and soon were discussing plans on how they intended to stop Stromm from destroying Tiberia.

"So, how's Stromm going to destroy your world, anyway?" Sheena asked Kayne when they were back.

"I don't know," Kayne admitted. "Our spies just told us that he had a giant weapon in his secret hideout. We need to find that weapon before it's too late."

"That was probably the giant laser we saw inside that mountain," Kratos concluded.

"Wait, you saw it?" Kayne asked excitedly.

"Yes. We know where his base is and where the weapon is. All we need to do is head there and stop it."

"Splendid!" Kayne yelled happily, like a giant weight had just been taken off his shoulders. "When can we head there?"

"First, we need to discuss plans on what we're going to do once we get there," Kratos answered. "We should head to Derris-Kharlan to do that."

"Where's that?" Skelter asked.

"It's in a place impossible to reach from here," Kratos said as he pulled out his teleporter. "But Lloyd and I have a device to take us there."

Kratos hit the button on his teleporter, and soon everyone was enveloped in the bright light and taken away to Derris-Kharlan.

When the group appeared there, Skelter and Kayne looked very confused, and even a bit scared. They had no idea where Kratos was leading them, and they could only place their trust in that he knew what he was doing.

Kratos led them all down a path that Lloyd was now very familiar with. When their long walk ended, Skelter and Kayne were staring face to face with Yuan and were about to meet him.

"And just who the hell are they?" Yuan asked very sternly when he saw Skelter and Kayne.

Kratos introduced them and then explained that they were going to be working together to once again go in Stromm's base, deactivate the weapon and take the crystal back, and they weren't going to let anyone get in their way. Not even Stromm.

"The way I see it, if he has the crystal hooked up to it now, it should be ready to fire by tonight," Kayne said, obviously worried. It was very uncomfortable guessing how long it would be before his entire world was obliterated.

"That doesn't give us much time. However, it should prove to be enough," Kratos decided. "Since we already have our teleporters to take us to Stromm's hideout, it's really just a matter of figuring out what we have to do to successful break in, steal the crystal and deactivate the weapon without anybody noticing."

"Doesn't sound too hard to me," Yuan said.

"Sheena, I think you'd better go," Lloyd said, turning his attention towards their summoner.

"What?" Sheena asked, looking a little offended. "But why?"

"You're not really going to be needed too much," Lloyd said, trying not to sound too cold.

"All right," Sheena said, understanding but still feeling a little hurt.

Lloyd and everyone else warped back down to Aselia and headed just outside Mizuho. Lloyd and Kratos wished her good luck, and Kayne and Skelter followed in their wishes. When they saw that Sheena got back in safely, the four of them started talking about how they were going to go about the operation of stopping Stromm before he fired the giant laser with the power of the crystal and destroy Tiberia.

"I think we're going to need Genis and Raine for this," Lloyd said out of nowhere, causing a bit of confusion for everyone. (particularly Kayne and Skelter; neither of them knew who Lloyd was talking about)

"And what use would those two be?" Kratos asked.

"They're smart," Lloyd simply said. "If we're going to disarm a giant weapon, we're going to need some smart people, aren't we?"

"I suppose so," Kratos said.

The four of them headed to Iselia to see if Genis and Raine were still there after Yuan had sent them home, and indeed they were. They were told their assistance was once again needed, and both of them were more than willing to help out. (although Raine was very uneasy about working with two people she had never met before)

"All right!" Lloyd yelled. "Is everyone ready?"

There was a chorus of people who said they were ready to infiltrate Stromm's base and stop the laser from firing and destroying Tiberia. It had been a rough few days for all of them, but luckily, it wasn't going to last much longer.

Lloyd hit the button on his teleporter, and the bright light started surrounding all of them. When the light completely closed in on them, they were zapped on to the top of the snowy mountain right at the entrance to Stromm's lair.

The six of them stared at the doorway leading inside Stromm's base, still blasted open from when Regal helped them get in. There was a long silence before Lloyd finally spoke up.

"All right, let's go!"

The group of six anxiously ran inside Stromm's base. Kratos looked relatively calm; Kayne looked excited and like he was about to do something he really wanted to do; Lloyd, Genis, Skelter and Raine, meanwhile, all looked very determined and were ready to go through with this plan.

"Okay, Genis and Raine-you guys go around looking for the laser and try to disarm it," Lloyd ordered. "Skelter, why don't you stay here and take down any guards that come this way?"

"I don't take orders from you!" Skelter insisted, putting his hands on his hips and giving Lloyd a dirty look.

"Skelter, please," Kayne said in a low and sad voice.

As if Kayne was his boss or something, Skelter agreed to do what Lloyd asked him to do.

"And Kayne, why don't you follow us?" Lloyd suggested. "When we find Stromm, you can guard around us to make sure no guards come to help him. How does that sound?"

"Sounds pretty good to me," Kayne said.

"All right," Lloyd said. "Then Kratos and I will head for Stromm and take him on."

Everyone agreed to their jobs. Raine and Genis instantly ran off and tried to find the controls to the laser and hoped to disarm it. Lloyd and Kratos ran off, but they didn't hear anything behind them, so Kayne obviously wasn't following them like he was supposed to. Both of them turned around and saw Kayne talking to Skelter.

"…all right, I'll get it," Skelter said as he and Kayne talked to each other.

"Kayne! Let's go!" Lloyd yelled impatiently.

"Coming!" Kayne yelled after Lloyd with some exasperation showing through his answer.

Skelter ran off in a separate direction as Lloyd, Kratos and Kayne started running through the long, dark halls of Stromm's hideout, hoping to find Stromm and have him put an end to the destruction of Tiberia.


	15. Saving Tiberia

In a previous review by Christoph, I got asked where Colette was, and I always try to answer questions that won't give a plot element away too soon. If you remember a few chapters back, Lloyd, Kratos and Yuan were going to investigate what Stromm was up to on their own and decided it would be best to leave everyone else out of it, so they dropped Genis, Raine and Colette off in Iselia. But when the they decided how they were going to attack Stromm's base and how they were going to stop him from destroying Tiberia, they decided they'd need Genis's and Raine's help. Colette wasn't there because they decided she wouldn't be needed for the operation.

Also, in my profile now, I have updated information on my next story after this one. It's my eighteenth Ross and Mike story (but only the second to be put on the web) and plot details and a few other things about it will be mentioned. So if you want to check it out, please do. The story is entitled The End of Time.

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Lloyd, Kratos and Kayne were now searching through the dark and threatening base after Skelter ran off to supposedly cover and to fight off any people who tried to stop them.

Lloyd wasn't scared about how he was going to have to confront Stromm. He knew for a fact he would win the fight. But he wasn't sure about whether or not they would make it in time to stop the laser from destroying Kayne's world.

The group went in door after door, only to make a quick sigh of annoyance and find no one was in there.

After running through door after door, the group finally walked in the correct one. As it turned out, Stromm was still in the same room he was in when they first invaded his base after Regal helped them.

Stromm had his back to them and was staring at a giant computer screen. The screen was centering on a picture of a lavender-colored planet (that Lloyd assumed was Tiberia) and it had a small circle around it with four tiny lines coming from equal distances on the circle. It was no doubt the target.

"I see you people can't help but get involved in these things," Stromm said before he even turned around. How did he know that they were there?

Stromm slowly turned around and stared at the three people as they gave him a hated look.

"I thought I told you that you shouldn't get yourself caught up in this!" Stromm sharply said to Lloyd. "If you want to go home and just get out of my way, it's not too late, you know."

"Yeah, right!" Lloyd said. "You think I'm going to let you destroy an entire world full of innocent people!"

Stromm just laughed in a manner that Lloyd had gotten used to hearing over his first journey. Of course, the laugh only made Lloyd hate him even more.

"Stromm, you don't need to destroy an entire world to win a war," Kratos gently assured him.

"Yeah!" Kayne yelled. "You think it's worth the lives of all those innocent people just so you can get what you want?"

"You should be the last to speak!" Stromm yelled. "And I'm not putting up with this anymore!"

Stromm turned around and started hitting a few buttons on the giant computer in front of him. They clicked and made computerized beeps as he hit each one. He finished by hitting one more, and the words TARGET LOCKED appeared on the screen. A countdown clock starting at five minutes started counting down.

"You see that?" Stromm said in a hideous way as he gave the three a vicious sneer. "In just five minutes, Tiberia will be completely obliterated. You can all go home now and forget you ever got involved."

"You bastard!" Lloyd screamed. "You think I'm gonna let you get away with this!" Lloyd quickly unsheathed his material blades. Kratos added on by drawing his sword.

"You wish to fight me?" Stromm asked in a surprised voice. "So be it. It will be the last mistake of your life."

Lloyd started charging at Stromm, but Stromm pulled out a handful of his explosive pellets and started throwing them one-by-one at Lloyd, trying to slow him down as much as possible. One pellet hit Lloyd on the foot and knocked him down for a minute as he tried to walk off the pain.

Stromm took this opportunity to tighten his gauntlets and make sure he could dish out the most pain possible when they were used.

Kratos came up from behind and gave Stromm a quick slash across the back, causing a trail of blood to soak through his white commander uniform.

Now realizing he was in a bit of trouble after seeing how powerful and quick Lloyd and Kratos really were, Stromm realized that if he wanted to stay alive, he would have to keep on his toes.

Lloyd jumped back into action and started swinging his material blades around so fast that they were nothing except a red and blue blur.

Stromm made several ducks and jumps out of the way as the two blades came dangerously close to making contact with him. When Lloyd had to take a split second to recover from his last swing, Stromm took the opportunity and gave Lloyd his hardest shot right in the stomach.

With the wind knocked out of him, Lloyd fell over on the floor on his back. He moved around a little bit while he tried to get his strength back, but when he opened his eyes, he saw Stromm was about ready to drop an entire handful of explosive pellets on top of him.

Lloyd braced himself for the pain and for the end to come, but just as Stromm was about to unleash the pellets, Kratos charged from behind and struck Stromm in the back of his head with the end of his sword.

Stromm screamed in pain as he released the pellets. The pellets fell only a few feet besides Lloyd, but harmlessly exploded.

Kratos and Stromm were now fighting one-on-one. Kratos tried casting a few fireballs from the tip of his sword, but it was fairly easy for Stromm to jump out of the way. After that, it was very easy for Stromm to bounce back by throwing some very quick punches.

Kratos, however, had no trouble dodging them. In fact, he even had time to put up his sword to block the punches being thrown at him.

After Stromm's gauntlet came into contact with Kratos's sword, the gauntlet got dented and basically was rendered useless.

Lloyd was finally able to get up after lying down for a few seconds and having his senses come back to him. He was finally able to get up, but was disappointed to see that Kratos was handling the fight fine without him.

However, Lloyd just tried to think of this as something that would make the fight easier. If Stromm was struggling to stay alive when fighting Kratos, then how much would Stromm struggle (better yet, how _long_) if Lloyd were helping Kratos fight?

Lloyd picked up both of his swords and started charging at Stromm and gave him another giant slash across the back.

Stromm screamed in pain as he fell to his knees as more blood started trickling from the newly formed wound in his back. Still, he refused to give up. He started standing again and started fighting even more viciously than he had before.

"Wow, this guy refuses to give up," Lloyd commented when he saw how stubborn Stromm was being.

Stromm started swinging his gauntlets at Lloyd so hard that Lloyd thought he could actually be knocked out on impact if the weapons were to hit him. Luckily, Lloyd made another quick slash when he was ducking one of Stromm's punches and managed to slice Stromm across the ankles, dropping him immediately.

"We got ya now!" Lloyd said as he put his material blades in a position that would fatally wound Stromm and finish him.

When Stromm was about to make his last breath, he reached both hands into his pockets and pulled out a handful of explosive pellets in both of them. He threw both handfuls, one at Lloyd and one at Kratos.

The pellets exploded and sent both swordsmen flying backwards and both of them crashed into a wall.

Staggering, Stromm got up and started walking over to Kratos and prepared to give a fatal blow to the Seraphim's skull with his gauntlet, but just as he was about to, Kratos rolled out of the way, causing Stromm to strike his gauntlet into the solid metal wall instead.

Somehow, Stromm seemed to be getting some of his strength back, despite having two massive gashes across his back and a slice at his ankle, making it harder to stay supported on two legs.

Stromm started taking pellet after pellet from his pocket, but for some reason he only threw them at Lloyd. After trying to dodge one after another, Lloyd eventually got hit by one and was knocked to the ground.

Stromm proceeded to running over Lloyd and grabbed his flamberge. Now _Stromm_ had a sword as well.

Growling angrily, Lloyd got up with his icy-blue Vorpal Sword and tried his best adjusting to fighting with only one sword. Stromm didn't seem to have too much trouble fighting at all.

When Lloyd and Stromm were clashing blades, Kratos saw that this would be an ideal time to strike. He ran up from behind, but just as he was about to strike Stromm, Stromm turned around and gave Kratos a hard kick in the stomach, then pushed him onto the ground and instantly resumed battling Lloyd without taking too much time.

But it didn't take long for Kratos to get back up, and soon it was a three-way fight. Somehow, Stromm was doing an excellent job holding off both swordsmen, even though he was outnumbered two-to-one.

No matter how many swings or how quickly the swings came from either sword, Stromm was able to parry it and keep himself alive.

"_No wonder he was made into a commander so fast if he can fight when in pain like this,"_ Lloyd thought to himself as he continued trying to swing the Vorpal sword, hoping to pierce Stromm with it.

The clashes back and forth continued as Lloyd and Kratos desperately tried to put a finishing blow on Stromm, because they only had about a minute left before the laser would fire and destroy Tiberia.

Making one last final attempt, Lloyd signaled for Kratos to get down on his knees when Stromm was too busy focusing his attention on Lloyd. Not sure what Lloyd was getting at, Kratos agreed.

Stromm turned around and saw Kratos was a target now, which is precisely what Lloyd wanted. As Stromm went around to stab Kratos while he was on his knees, Lloyd ran around to behind Kratos and jumped on his back and did a somersault over him, like he was playing a game of leap frog.

The move, of course, surprised Stromm and his attention drifted back to Lloyd, even though Kratos was right in front of him. But Lloyd was a bit fast with his Vorpal sword, and when Kratos saw that Stromm had his back to him, he was fast with his sword as well.

Both swordsmen proceeded to stick their swords right into Stromm; Lloyd in Stromm's front and Kratos in Stromm's back.

Stromm screamed in pain as both of them dug their swords into him, and even more so when they both ripped their swords out. Stromm was finished now as he collapsed on the floor in a puddle of blood.

But Lloyd and Kratos had no time now to celebrate their small victory. Tiberia's time was still running out and they had to disarm the weapon.

Lloyd ran over to the giant computer and saw he only had thirty seconds left to disarm the laser before Tiberia would become a pile of dust.

Kratos turned his attention to the back of the room and saw Kayne standing there, now looking very anxious and maybe a bit disturbing.

"Kayne, do you know how to disarm it?" Kratos asked.

"I'm sorry, I don't," Kayne said, still looking very nervous and almost creepy.

Lloyd hit button after button, trying his best to disarm the laser.

"Dammit! Where are Genis and Raine!" Lloyd asked as he pressed any button he could see.

Now there were only about twenty seconds left. Lloyd still tried doing everything he could with the system and trying to shut it down. He mashed every single button he could see.

Ten seconds left. Sweat was now pouring from Lloyd. His eyes were clearly scared and his teeth were grit as he still tried to disarm the weapon.

Finally, Lloyd hit one last button, and the words LASER ABORTED appeared on screen with only four seconds left to spare. Lloyd stared wide-eyed at the screen, unable to believe he had just managed to stop Tiberia with only a few seconds to spare.

"Fools!" yelled a voice from behind him. Lloyd turned around and saw Stromm now standing on two legs, but with giant bloody patches all over him. "Do you have any idea what you've just done!"

Saying this, Stromm's eyes closed as if he was passing out, and then he just plopped onto the floor and didn't move after that. He was dead.

"Whew," Lloyd said.

"So Tiberia is saved," Kratos coolly said. "I'd say that's mission accomplished."

"Yeah," Lloyd said, relieved.

There was a silence that filled the room that was lively with violence only a minute before. There was no sound heard except Lloyd and Kratos's heavy breathing. Lloyd went over to Stromm's corpse and picked up flamberge, and then sheathed both of his swords. Out of nowhere, a sound broke the silence.

"Heh heh heh heh heh," Kayne laughed in an evil sounding way. His once friendly and almost timid look was now replaced with a malicious one.


	16. Chase Down the Mountain

Lloyd and Kratos froze at the sound of hearing Kayne's evil-sounding laugh. Nervously, they turned around and saw their "comrade" as he laughed in their faces and looked like he was about ready to kill both of them without caring.

"Kayne!" Lloyd yelled. "What…but…"

"Hah!" Kayne yelled. "I should thank you for going through all that trouble. Now I'm sure to get a promotion to a commander!"

"Wait a minute!" Lloyd yelled as he balled both of his fists up. "You only had us kill Stromm so you could get a promotion!"

"Yes and no," Kayne coldly replied. He crossed his arms and gave Kratos and Lloyd a nasty sneer. "By killing Stromm, you have eliminated the one person who could destroy our world."

"Yeah, isn't that a good thing!" Lloyd said as he pushed his arm to the side and raised his left fist close to his face.

"For me, yes. For you, no!" Kayne yelled.

"What!" Lloyd yelled.

"What are you talking about?" Kratos said, starting to sound very angry himself.

"My world has been saved because of you destroying Stromm. I'll be sure to remember that when Tiberia obliterates your world," Kayne coldly said.

"_Obliterate!"_ Lloyd screamed, now having enough rage in him to destroy everything in the room. He never remembered getting this angry since Remiel betrayed them in the Tower of Salvation.

"Yes, that's right," Kayne said, almost like he was doing nothing wrong at all. "Since you were gracious enough to stop Stromm from destroying our world, nothing will stand in our way of us destroying yours."

"You bastard!" Lloyd said, taking a step closer to Kayne and looking like he was about ready to throttle him. "You're not getting away with this!"

"Oh, I think I am," Kayne said in casual, but contrasting voice. "We Tiberians have a great weapon that we can use to destroy your world."

"Why would you want to!" Kratos sharply asked.

"I have no need to explain," Kayne said.

"Well guess what! It's not going to work!" Lloyd threatened. "You probably need something really powerful to fire that weapon."

"Yes," Kratos agreed. "And we have Skelter guarding the crystal in here and keeping a sharp eye out for it. It's safe to say you're not going to have enough power to launch a devastating blast to destroy this world."

Saying that, Skelter walked into the doorway and walked right by Lloyd and Kratos's side. Somehow he heard the whole conversation.

Kayne looked almost sorrowful at Skelter.

"Skelter, is this true?" Kayne asked in a sad way.

"I'm only trying to save worlds, not destroy them," Skelter said as he stared at Stromm right in the eye.

"All right!" Lloyd said. He pulled out his material blades and started glaring at Kayne.

"So be it," Kayne said as if nothing was wrong. "But Skelter, I have one request. May I have that rock in your pocket you stole from the giant laser?"

Lloyd and Kratos's eyes widened and they turned their attention to the pirate at their side. Skelter started sneering at Lloyd and Kratos as well.

"Of course!" Skelter said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the shining crystal that Lloyd and Stromm quickly fought for when they were on the island.

Saying this, Skelter casually made his way over to Kayne and put his hands on his hips and stared at the father-son duo staring at them, unable to believe what was happening.

"…that is, _unless_ there's a reward in it for me!" Skelter said, finishing his sentence before Kayne summoned him to his side.

Kratos and Lloyd were silent. Both of them wanted to attack, but there was something holding them back. They needed to know as much about what was going on before they could make any snap judgments and do anything that they would end up regretting.

"Well, it's been great talking to ya!" Kayne said. "But Skelter and I had better be on our way. In just a few hours, this mission will have made me a commander, and in just a short while, this world will be nothing except a pile of rubble!"

"Wait!" Kratos commanded.

But it was too late. Kayne and Skelter ran out of the room and started quickly running down the hall and back towards the entrance to the mountain hideout.

When the two got out of the room, they saw that Skelter and Kayne were already much further ahead than they thought they would be.

Lloyd and Kratos continued chasing Kayne and Skelter as hard as they could, but they didn't get much closer throughout the entire chase.

Kayne and Skelter finally got to the exit, but then they both remembered they were on top of a mountain and escaping would be really hard, especially since Lloyd and Kratos were the one with the teleporters.

"Ah ha!" Lloyd said when he saw that there was no possible way Skelter and Kayne could escape. "You're trapped now!"

Kayne and Skelter looked at each other nervously, and then went with their only possible hope for survival. Taking a deep breath, they both started running down the long, slippery mountain path.

"Kratos! We gotta run after them!" Lloyd insisted when he saw that Skelter and Kayne were taking their only chance and hope for escaping.

As Kayne and Skelter started slowly making their way down the mountain, the biting snow blew right in their faces as the cold wind guided it. Both of them were terrified and could barely see what was in front of them, and one wrong slip would end it all for them.

But Lloyd and Kratos also had to work their hardest and make sure that Kayne and Skelter didn't get away. But Lloyd and Kratos actually had an advantage, because they weren't running for their lives like Skelter and Kayne were.

About a third of the way down the mountain, Skelter slipped and he fell down. He started sliding down the side of the mountain at a very fast pace, and just as he was about to slide off the side, Kayne grabbed him by the ankle, then grabbed onto a slab of rock to keep himself from falling with Skelter.

It didn't take Lloyd and Kratos long at all to catch up with them, and when they saw that Skelter and Kayne were barely clinging on to the rock to keep themselves alive, they saw this as the perfect opportunity to end this.

But as the two of them saw Kratos and Lloyd coming, Skelter and Kayne quickly came up with a plan. While he was still clutching on to Kayne's hand, Skelter reached up into his other hand and reached into Kayne's pocket. He pulled out Kayne's boomerang and threw it as hard as he could at Lloyd and Kratos.

As a result, Lloyd ducked out of the boomerang just in time and it ended up slicing a large chunk of rock off the side of the mountain and it came crashing down between Lloyd and Kratos, separating them.

"Kratos!" Lloyd yelled as he saw the giant rock come between him and his father.

"It's all right, Lloyd!" Kratos yelled from the other side.

A loud clashing sound was heard, and suddenly large fragments of the rock started to chip from it. In a matter of seconds, the entire rock crumpled as if it were made of sand and the mountain path was once again open. Kratos had apparently struck the rock so hard (and probably used a little bit of magic as well) to stop the rock from blocking their path any longer.

Lloyd and Kratos both turned their attention back to Kayne and Skelter as they dangled from the side of the freezing mountain, only to see that they both managed to get back on the trail and were once again running down the side.

The close pursuit continued, but with no problems or close calls the rest of the way down.

Kayne and Skelter got to the bottom of the mountain a while before Lloyd and Kratos did. Even though they were both out of breath, they still continued to move very quickly, because if Lloyd and Kratos caught up to them, they'd be finished.

Kayne and Skelter quickly hopped onto the boat that had somehow appeared at the bottom of an iceberg that the mountain was on top of.

"What the?..." Lloyd said when he saw Kayne and Skelter hop into the boat. "Where'd that ship come from?"

Kayne and Skelter immediately started sailing away and Lloyd and Kratos reached the bottom of the mountain too late. By the time they had reached the bottom, Kayne and Skelter were already weaving their way out of the mess of rocks and to escaping.

"Dammit!" Lloyd yelled when he saw they had gotten away.

"Lloyd-our wings," Kratos said. "We can use them to fly after those two."

"Oh, right," Lloyd said rather bluntly. "All right, let's try it!"

Lloyd and Kratos tried sprouting their angelic wings and attempted to fly off with it, but once again, their wings refused to come out.

"Not again…" Lloyd whined. "Why aren't our wings working!"

Kratos looked like he was deep in thought. "Hmmmmm…it appears as if Yuan and I were correct."

Lloyd made a small "hmm?" sound as he quickly cast his attention towards Kratos. "Did you say something?"

"It's nothing," Kratos said, shrugging the situation off his shoulders. He then walked closer to the water and stood less than a footstep short of walking into it.

"So, how are we going to get back to the mainland?" Lloyd asked. "Wouldn't our teleporters just take us back to Derris-Kharlan?"

"Right now, indeed they would," Kratos said. "But all we have to do is wait for our wings to start working again."

"But that could take forever!" Lloyd complained, stomping his booted foot onto the hard, cold ground beneath them.

"No, it won't," Kratos assured, turning his head to the side and looking at Lloyd out of the corner of his eyes. "Just be patient."

Unsure of what Kratos was talking about, Lloyd cooperated and sat down on the ground, waiting for a while for his wings to come back. He looked around and stared at everything around him. Everything except for Kratos standing right in front of him.

After several minutes had passed, Kratos turned around and looked at Lloyd again. "Shall we try sprouting our wings again?"

Lloyd made a scoffing sound by forcing air out of his mouth, despite it being closed. "Yeah, sure. Like they'll actually come out this time!"

Kratos didn't seem to react at all to Lloyd's sarcastic remark. He just turned around and tried sprouting his wings, and sure enough his wings came out. Kratos pushed himself into the air and started flying away from the spot where the base of Stromm's mountain hideout was.

"Hey!" Lloyd shouted, running to the edge of the icy piece of land and looking up at Kratos as he flew away. "Wait for me!"

Lloyd sprouted his wings immediately after and started flying after Kratos.

"How did you know that our wings would work this time?" Lloyd asked as he and Kratos flew side-by-side.

"I have my ways. That's all," the Seraphim plainly answered. Lloyd was about to say something in response, but Kratos spoke again before Lloyd could. "Shall we find a boat to bring Genis and Raine back to the mainland?"

After Skelter and Kayne had betrayed them and now threatened to destroy Aselia now that they had the crystal for themselves, Lloyd had completely forgotten about his two friends in his fit of rage and anger.

"Yeah, let's do that," Lloyd agreed.

The two of them flew back and found a boat that had an owner willing to lend to them. Lloyd and Kratos set sail on it and started sailing back towards the snowy region in Flanoir and back to the bottom of the mountain.

When the two of them got there, they saw that Genis and Raine were sitting on rocks just a few feet away from the freezing water, looking very annoyed. The annoyance turned to confusion when they saw Lloyd and Kratos pull up on a boat.

"Where were you guys?" Genis yelled as he hopped off the rock and took a step or two towards them.

"We need not explain," Kratos answered almost coldly as he got off the wooden boat and docked it. "There are more urgent matters at hand."

"What do you mean?" Genis asked.

"It seems we have a new enemy and were deceived," Kratos answered. "Both of you-on the boat," Kratos commanded as he looked at Raine and Genis. "Lloyd and I will explain everything to you as we sail back to the mainland."

Raine looked sick and uneasy. "As we…_sail_ back?...on a _boat?_..."

The quartet was on the boat in a short amount of time and were sailing back to where Kratos and Lloyd borrowed the boat from. They proceeded to tell Raine and Genis about what just happened.

"So Kayne was deceiving us from the very beginning," Raine said in an angry, yet gentle tone. "And that scumbag of a pirate has sided with him?"

"Yeah," Lloyd said, nodding his head. "The worst part is that both of them have the crystal now and want to blow up our world. And the only person who probably could have stopped them is Stromm, and he's dead now."

"Maybe we should have let Stromm blow up Tiberia," Genis grumbled angrily. "That way, we wouldn't have these problems."

"Genis…" Lloyd said in a sad tone. "That would mean all those innocent people on Tiberia would have been killed. Do you really want that?"

Genis just grumbled and slumped back on the wooden bench he was sitting on.

"Right now all we need to do is come up with a plan," Kratos said. "Once we do that, we should be able to stop Kayne from destroying our world by not hurting anyone from Tiberia as well."

Raine looked like she was about to throw up as the boat rocked up and down on the bigger waves as they continued sailing out. "Do you have one in mind?" she said, looking like she was doing everything in her power not to hurl.

"Yes, as a matter a fact, I do," Kratos casually replied.


	17. Starting Over

Once again, thank you to my reviewers who have stuck by and reviewed this story so far. (even thought it seems a lot of my reviewers have disappeared except for Christoph and Leppers.) Thank you anyway to everyone for reviewing and please keep the reviews coming.

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"Really?" Lloyd asked curiously as the boat continued to rock violently up and down on the waves, causing Raine to start feeling very uneasy and sick. "What is it?"

"Right now, we don't know much about Tiberia. I say the first step to stopping this situation is to obtain as much knowledge about the enemy as possible," Kratos said calmly.

"I agree," Raine said, trying her best not to sound nauseous. "If we're going to strike back and save the world, then we need to know everything we can."

"But what place is going to have any information on Tiberia?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"Sybak, I would presume," Kratos answered.

"Oh yeah," Lloyd said, realizing he probably missed the most obvious answer.

"So, it's off to Sybak then?" Genis asked.

"Yes," Kratos coolly replied.

With the exception of Raine having to lean over the edge of the boat to throw up every once in a while, the rest of the boat ride was pretty quiet and uneventful. Lloyd, Genis and Raine got off the boat while Kratos went to return it to the one who let him borrow it. As soon as he gave the boat back, Kratos was able to just fly over to Sybak without much trouble.

The four headed into the academic city, wondering what information they would find inside that would point them in the right direction. As soon as they walked in, they were greeted by a familiar face.

"Hello again," said a cheerful voice from behind. The group turned around and Cesara was standing there, waving at them and smiling.

"Hi, Cesara," Lloyd plainly said. "Would you happen to have any information on Tiberia. Like how we can get there or why they want to destroy our world?"

Cesara looked shocked at this remark. She let out a small gasping noise and covered her mouth with one hand.

"Lloyd, maybe you should have kept quiet about that," Genis said in a slightly irritable tone to his best friend.

"Maybe," Lloyd said. Now he realized that he may have just frightened Cesara by letting her know that there was someone who wanted to destroy the world. He instantly started trying to say a few things that would reassure her that everything would be okay…or so he hoped.

"But don't worry!" Lloyd continued. "We're the ones who reunited the world! If we can stop someone like Mithos, we can definitely stop a guy like Kayne."

Cesara looked very nervous and uncomfortable now. "Kayne!"

"Oh, that's right, you don't know about him," Lloyd calmly said to Cesara. "He's just this guy from Tiberia who's our enemy and tricked us into getting him a powerful crystal that he…wants to use to do bad things with."

"It's okay, Lloyd. You can tell her he wants to use it to destroy the world, you already told her," Genis cracked at Lloyd.

"Shut it, Genis!" Lloyd said, turning around and giving Genis an upset look.

"Cesara, would you happen to have any information on Tiberia or what it is we're supposed to do?" Kratos asked, trying to get everything back on topic again.

Cesara now looked unbelievably nervous. There was no telling what she was scared about, but her face had genuine terror and fear in it about what the group was talking about. She tried her best to hide it but obviously did not do a very good job.

"I'm sorry, but I don't," she said rather weakly.

"Dammit!" Lloyd yelled. "If no one here has any information, then where are we supposed to find it? We can't attack Tiberia if we don't even know the first thing about it!"

"Of course…" Cesara pathetically said as Lloyd was about to continue his rant, "I may know of _one_ other place that could possibly have information on Tiberia."

Lloyd stopped screaming and stared at her, his eyes brimming with excitement, as was everyone else in the group. (except for Kratos, he didn't show any more emotion than normal)

"Really?" Lloyd asked. "Where can we find it?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if there was some if it the records in Meltokio," Cesara said, sounding like she was doing her best to be helpful.

"Why would it be there?" Lloyd asked.

"The king would probably have records of it," Cesara replied, not knowing what else to say.

"I guess it's worth a shot," Lloyd answered. "Meltokio isn't too far from here, anyway."

"Very well," Kratos said. "Let's be off."

Lloyd, Kratos, Genis and Raine all walked out of the research academy and started making their way towards the Imperial City of Meltokio. It was a fairly quiet walk until they heard something a little bit after they reached the half way point.

"Wait a minute!" called out a feminine voice from behind the quartet. Everyone turned around, and it was Cesara. She was running after both of them. Her white lab coat blew in the breeze as she made her way towards them. "I want to come with you."

Lloyd had an uneasy look on his face. "I dunno, Cesara. It's going to be pretty dangerous journey from here on out. I wouldn't want you getting hurt."

"I agree with Lloyd," Raine said softly. "I don't think you should get yourself involved in this."

"Please!" Cesara pleaded, starting to sound a bit desperate. "I want to come with you."

"No!" Lloyd, Genis and Raine yelled in unison, unable to see how Cesara was not able to understand them about not wanting her to endanger herself by accompanying them.

"Let her come," Kratos coolly said. Everyone's attention turned towards him, and the three others were unsure of what he was getting at. "It seems as if she has made up her mind. Even if we tell her not to come, she'll probably follow us anyway."

Lloyd looked very upset, but finally gave in. "All right. Come on, Cesara."

Cesara smiled, but didn't say anything at all. She took her time as she strolled over to her four new "allies" and started walking with them.

Within a matter of minutes, all five of them had made their way into the kingdom city. They were walking across the solid pavement beneath them as they made their way to the king's castle, wondering if the king still held a grudge on them.

But just as Lloyd was leading everyone closer, he stopped for some reason. He heard a voice coming from somewhere close by, and it was accompanied by several footsteps.

"…so that's when I said 'Hey, don't hate me because I'm more beautiful than you!'," said a familiar male voice.

Lloyd looked to where he heard the voice coming from and he saw a tall, but young looking guy with long, wavy red hair walking around. His pink clothes matched the color of his hair, but were several shades brighter. There were four girls following behind him, all laughing like idiots.

"…Zelos?" Lloyd asked, unable to believe who he was seeing.

The man looked at Lloyd and instantly looked surprised to see him, and then a gigantic smile spread across his face. "Lloyd!" he yelled excitedly. There was no doubt about it. It was Zelos, all right.

Zelos ran over to Lloyd excitedly. "Hey, Lloyd ol' buddy, how's it goin'?" the former Tethe'alla Chosen asked as he ran over to Lloyd and started giving him a series of hard pats (which were more like slams) on the back.

"Ah…everything's just been great," Lloyd said almost coldly as he rubbed his now sore back with one of his hands. "We were just on our way to see the king and ask him about something."

"Really?" Zelos said in a very casual and carefree manner. "All right then, I won't hold you up. Come on, ladies. Let's head somewhere where we can have some fun."

All the girls behind him started shrieking with excitement and happiness at Zelos's remarks. But then one of the girls started screaming louder. Not from excitement, but from horror.

"Ah! Master Zelloooooos!" she screamed in fear.

"Huh?" Zelos asked. He turned around and he ducked out of the way of a boomerang that was heading right toward him. "Whoa! Who threw that thing?"

Zelos and his former allies looked at where the boomerang came from. They saw that there were about ten people standing there. They were all wearing the same military attire that Kayne was wearing the last time the group saw them.

Lloyd gasped when he saw them. "Tiberians!" he said breathlessly.

"Ti-whats?" Zelos asked, having no clue who the soldiers were or what they wanted.

One of the Tiberians stepped forward and looked Zelos right in the eye. "Are you with those people?" he sneered, pointing to Lloyd and everyone in his group.

"And if I am?" Zelos asked as if it wasn't a serious matter at all. "And where did you guys get those suits from, the town's sewer? 'Cause no offense guys, but man! Those outfits are UG-LAY!"

The Tiberian grunt started getting annoyed with Zelos and his rude remarks, and instead of putting up with it any longer, the grunt kicked Zelos in the stomach, knocking him onto the ground.

"AHH! ZELLLLLLOOOOOOOSSSS!" yelled all the girls he was with as they fled in terror.

Zelos slowly got up and grunted, then looked at the guy who had just kicked him. "Okay, that ain't cool."

Zelos pulled his sword and stuck it right into the guy's abdomen, killing him immediately. The grunt fell to the ground with a giant opened wound on him, now bleeding profusely.

"Get him!" yelled the other Tiberians who were standing by and watching. Instantly, all of them started charging at him savagely.

"Wah-oh," Zelos said, but still managed not to sound too concerned as he saw everyone running towards him, ready to attack him and give him a quick, yet painful death.

"Zelos!" Lloyd yelled. He leaped into the air and in front of Zelos, but managed to pull out his material blades while he was off the ground and was able to parry a few of the soldiers who charged at Zelos, keeping his friend safe.

"Love ya," Zelos said as he ran a few feet away after Lloyd had just saved them.

The fight didn't go on much longer than that. Even though there were still seven others, the group made quick work out of all of them. Kratos, Lloyd and Zelos all struck hard with their swords while Genis blasted the remaining ones with some of his magic.

After the quick brawl in the streets was finished and all the Tiberians had been defeated, Zelos let out a loud "Wheeeeeeewwwwwww" sound. After catching his breath a little while longer, he turned back to Lloyd. "Ha! They were easier than that time you had to fight your old man one-on-one."

"Hey!" Lloyd yelled. "I'd like to never have to fight Kratos again, you know. And besides, those guys are bad news."

"Really then," Zelos said. "Then why don't we head back to my mansion and you can tell me all about it."

"All right," Lloyd agreed. He turned back to the other four people in his group. "You guys okay with that?"

Genis, Raine, Cesara and Kratos all replied "Yes" in unison.

" 'K then," Zelos said cheerfully. "Then off we go!"

Zelos led everyone in Lloyd's group back to his giant house, which really wasn't too much of a walk for them. As soon as he walked inside, the group was immediately dazzled once again by how luxurious and attractive Zelos's home was.

"Ah, Sir Bud, how good to see you again," said Zelos's butler the second he saw Lloyd walk in through the door.

"My name's Ll…ah, never mind," Lloyd said in an annoyed tone.

Zelos invited everyone to sit down and to start talking things over with him. As soon as everybody was comfortable, Zelos got his first chance to really look at Cesara.

"Ahhhhh," Zelos said in a flirtatious way when he saw the researcher from Sybak. "And just who is this very intelligent looking honey?"

"Don't talk like that to her, you perv!" Genis sneered. "I'll have you know Cesara is a very smart person who works at the Sybak Research Academy."

"Oh, I have a smart honey know," Zelos said, smiling at Cesara and making her face turn a very bright shade of crimson.

"I…actually wanted to be a business woman," Cesara nervously said.

This was all news to everyone, especially to Lloyd's group. Cesara never seemed like the kind of woman who would be running a company or something like that.

"My parents insisted I use my knowledge to work at the academy instead," she said a little sadly.

"Aw, who cares about what your parents think?" Zelos asked, almost sounding unaffected by what Cesara had just said.

"Zelos!" Raine scolded.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Zelos said, not sure why he was apologizing. "Anyway, what was up with those freaks in the blue outfits that looked about a zillion sizes too tight?"

Lloyd explained everything that had happened so far. Getting stranded on the island, finding the weird statues and using them to find the crystal, killing Stromm in order to get the crystal, only to be betrayed by Skelter and Kayne.

"Then what are you guys doing here?" Zelos asked after Lloyd explained everything. "Why aren't you kicking Kayne's butt back to Ti-whatever-you-call-it?"

"We don't know anything about Tiberia at all," Lloyd said. "We thought we should gather information about it so we could think of the best way to attack and make sure nothing bad happens to this world."

"And you came _here_?" Zelos asked. He seemed to have trouble understanding why they chose to come to Meltokio of all places to look.

"Yes," Raine calmly answered. "We thought maybe the king would have some records about Tiberia."

Zelos shot up. "Well, why didn't you say so? Come on, I'll get him to let you look at anything you want."

"What?" Lloyd asked, surprised by the sudden start Zelos was getting. Everyone seemed to perk up at how Zelos suddenly bolted from his chair, even Kratos. "Are you sure he'll let us look at it?"

"Come on," Zelos said. "Why wouldn't he?"


	18. The World's Past

Lloyd, Kratos, Raine, Genis, Zelos and Cesara were making their way to the King's castle, hoping he still wasn't holding a grudge on the group. The group got stalled by some of the guards, but all Zelos had to do was a little talking to convince the guards to let them into the castle.

For some reason, the castle didn't have the majestic sort of feel it had the first time the group entered it, but they had more important things to worry about than that.

Zelos led his friends through the king's castle and towards the throne room. He knew the king wouldn't be too pleased to see him, but Zelos couldn't care less what the king thought about him.

As they walked through, Zelos tried to ease some of the tension by just turning his head to one of the guards, giving them a quick wave and saying something like, "Hey, how ya doing?" or something casual like that.

"Leave this to me," Zelos said as he walked to the doors leading to the throne.

"That's a familiar line," Lloyd said coldly as he remembered what happened the last time Zelos said that as he went on ahead.

"Lloyd, you need to chill out," Zelos said in a criticizing, yet friendly way. "This isn't the way to the Hall of the Great Seed now, is it? Didn't think so."

Zelos turned his back to the group and started banging very loudly and rudely on the King's door.

The doors slowly opened, and Princess Hilda was standing there. Zelos immediately started smiling like an idiot.

"Why, hello there, my sweet little princess," Zelos said.

"Who is it?" everyone heard the King demand once Hilda opened the door.

"It's the group Zelos was with," Hilda nervously answered as she looked at her father.

"What!" the king yelled. The group heard him get up from his throne, and in a matter of seconds, he was standing right in front of them at the large wooden doors. "What do you want?"

"Hey, no need to be so edgy," Zelos said as if he were having a normal conversation with anybody.

"Just tell me why you came here," the king said coldly. He still had the same sour look with the long brown hair and beard.

"Fine, fine," Zelos said. "We've got a few friends who Lloyd likes to call 'Tiberians', and they just walked into Meltokio and tried to kill me and my buds for whatever reason."

"I thought you said they were your friends?" the king said, not seeing the huge deal about it.

"Anyway, these guys say those Tiberians came from a distant world called Tiberia. Trouble is, we don't know squat about that world. So, we were wondering if maybe you'd be so kind as to lend us some of the records in this castle and see what we can find in them," Zelos said, trying to talk as smoothly as possible. (and doing a fairly good job at it)

"No," the king said quickly and bluntly.

"Okay, let me rephrase that," Zelos said, crossing his arms. "Show us the records so we have some sort of lead on what those Tiberians want, or they'll come to Meltokio and burn the place down."

"That's what our military is for," the king said.

"Come on, don't be a bum," Zelos said. He sounded as if he were pleading but not sounding desperate at all.

"Good-bye," the king said as he closed the door on the group.

Lloyd, Genis and Raine all had looks of shock and anger on their face. Even though he didn't express it, you could tell that Kratos was fairly ticked off about what just happened as well.

Zelos was the only one who didn't seem to upset about it. He turned back towards his friends and gave them a confident look. "Don't worry, guys. We'll get information about Ti-whatchamacallit some other way."

The six of them were now walking away until they heard the doors open when they were just about out of ear shot. They turned around, and Princess Hilda was running towards them, looking fairly nervous.

"Please don't mind my father," she said sadly. "I'll get you those records."

"Why, thank you, my little princess," Zelos said in a low, but happy tone.

"I'll try to sneak them out later tonight," she said. "Where will I find you?"

"You can just drop them off at my mansion, and you can even hang around and have some fun there if you want," Zelos said.

Raine walked over to him and smacked him hard across the face. "We would be very appreciative if you bring them there," she said, answering for Zelos.

"Very well," Hilda said. "I will see you later tonight then."

Hilda walked back into the throne room while the rest of them walked out of the castle, hoping that the records that Hilda was going to get for them would be put to some use.

Hours passed. It was very dark out now as Meltokio was dying down for the night. But the lights remained on in Zelos's mansion as everyone waited for Hilda to come with the records. After waiting for a long time, she finally showed up at the door with a thick book in her hand.

"Here it is," she said as she passed the book to Lloyd.

"Thanks," Lloyd said. "Are you going to help us look for anything in here?"

"I'm sorry, but I have to get back to the castle before someone notices I'm gone," Hilda sorrowfully stated. "Good-bye."

"Thanks," Lloyd said, looking down at the book in his hand. "Bye."

Hilda walked away from the mansion and quickly made her way back to the castle to avoid being seen by any of the guards that were patrolling the streets of Meltokio at night.

Lloyd was about to open the book, but Kratos walked over to him and gave him a piercing look. "Lloyd, let me see the book."

"What?" Lloyd asked. "Why?"

"Let me see the book," Kratos repeated, sounding even more stern.

"All right, all right," Lloyd said in a tone that basically told Kratos to chill out.

The auburn haired Seraphim took the book and he started flipping through it. He proceeded to walking towards a chair. He sat down in it and started flipping through the book very quickly, almost like he was looking for something.

After studying the book for several minutes, Kratos groaned softly to himself and got up. He put the book down on the chair he was sitting in and walked outside without saying a word to anyone.

"What's his deal?" Genis asked after Kratos was out of earshot.

"Maybe he read something that was a bit overbearing for him," Raine calmly reasoned.

"No…it was something else," Lloyd said suspiciously as he stared out after Kratos.

"Did you say something, Lloyd?" Raine asked after Lloyd finished mumbling.

"It's nothing," Lloyd quickly said. He made haste out the door and went after Kratos. When he was outside, he saw that Kratos was about thirty feet from the mansion. Even though Lloyd couldn't see anything besides the back side of him, he was sure Kratos was deep in thought and maybe even worried.

"Kratos!" Lloyd yelled. "What was in that book?"

Kratos didn't say anything. He just continued to stare at nothing and didn't even act like he heard his son.

"Kratos!"

"No need to shout, Lloyd. I can hear you fine."

Lloyd walked over to Kratos and tried his best to get Kratos to respond to him. "Kratos, what was it? Was there something in that book? Do you know something?"

Kratos let a small patch of gritted teeth show as he turned away from Lloyd.

"You _do_ know something!" Lloyd realized. "Kratos, you _do_ know something about Tiberia, don't you?"

Kratos slowly turned towards Lloyd.

"Lloyd, believe it or not, I am very confused."

"Confused? Why?"

"I was reading information about Tiberia, but it seems strangely similar to a world I heard about at the end of the Kharlan War."

"Really?" Lloyd asked. "What do you mean?" The Eternal Swordsman was now brimming with excitement as the night air around them went disturbingly quiet.

"After the Kharlan War ended, an enemy of Mithos named lord Vice swore he would get revenge. He ran away to a distant world, and its history sounds strangely similar to that of Tiberia's," Kratos tried explaining.

"Revenge?" Lloyd asked. "What for?"

"He apparently was humiliated by Mithos after losing a battle to him and he swore that he would get revenge. I'm assuming he then told all the people who followed him back to his other world lies about Mithos and the world he created in an effort to make them hate Mithos and his allies even more."

"Wait, are you saying that just because this Vice guy lost to Mithos during the war, he ran away to another world and told lies to everybody to make them hate Mithos?" Lloyd asked, trying to make sure he had everything clear. (Something he was not normally good at)

"So it would seem," Kratos said. "But the world he escaped to was not called Tiberia."

"It wasn't?" Lloyd asked. "Then maybe it's another Vice that book was talking about?"

Kratos gave Lloyd a disappointed look. "How many Vices do you know? Besides, the history of the two worlds are way too similar to just be a coincidence. There's no doubt in my mind the world Vice fled to and Tiberia are the same."

"Then, what happened to Vice?"

"According to the records, he died a mysterious death a long time ago," Kratos answered. "The records have no indication as to who its current ruler is, but we can assume that whoever it is followed in Vices lies and has turned us into their enemy."

"So Stromm was right to have wanted to destroy Tiberia!" Lloyd yelled as he slammed his foot down on the ground. "Dammit!"

"Lloyd, can you really say that?" Kratos gently asked. "Not everyone on Tiberia can be spiteful of us. Would you really want them to die because of their leader's actions?"

"I…guess not," Lloyd said. "But what are we supposed to do to stop _them_ from destroying _us_!"

"Obviously, we'll have to go to Tiberia ourselves," Kratos said. "It seems to be our only lead in learning anything useful."

"Really?" Lloyd said excitedly. "You mean we're going to get to actually go to that world!"

Kratos sighed. "Have I not mentioned enough how you are too excited and emotional _before_ the mission actually starts?"

Lloyd groaned at Kratos's criticism, but soon shrugged it off.

"I say that's a splendid idea!" Raine exclaimed.

Lloyd and Kratos turned around and saw Raine and Genis standing in the doorway looking very excited. Cesara, although very nervous looking, also thought that going to Tiberia would put the group on the right track.

"Oh, boy!" Genis yelled excitedly as he jumped up and down. "We're going to Tiberia!"

Kratos looked at Raine, then cast his attention quickly back at Genis. "No, you won't," he quickly said in an assertive way.

Genis immediately looked like all the life was taken out of him. He gave Kratos an angry look. "Why not!" he demanded.

"You and Raine are the only ones who know about Tiberia and would be able to do anything. If anything were to happen to me or Lloyd in Tiberia, then at least we'd have you to tell everyone else and stop whatever it is they're planning.

Genis began sulking. He didn't want to admit it, but he knew Kratos was right.

"Hey, what about me?" Zelos asked excitedly as he walked out of his mansion. "Going to another world? Sounds like a pretty good time to me, especially if the honnies there are as beautiful as they are here."

"No," Kratos still insisted. "I think Lloyd and I would make for an acceptable infiltration team right now."

"Yeah. By the way, what's our objective?" Lloyd asked.

"Obviously, we must eliminate the problem," Kratos said. "That would be Kayne. He's probably the main source of information, and hopefully we won't be too late when we find him. We must eliminate him before he can tell anybody of our world."

"Don't forget the crystal," Lloyd said.

Kratos looked very taken back by this. "Yes. We must eliminate Kayne and take the crystal back."

"All right!" Lloyd said as he made a fist in front of himself. "It's off to Tiberia!"

"Lloyd, do you even know how to get to Tiberia?" Genis asked.

Lloyd suddenly looked very upset and the enthusiasm just drained from him. "No, we don't."

"I think I know the way," Cesara said, smiling at Lloyd and Kratos.

"Really?" Lloyd asked. Just like that, all the emotion he had lost just a moment before had returned to him as if nothing had ever happened.

"Yes," Cesara said, smiling. "I know how to get you and Kratos to Tiberia."

"All right!" Lloyd said, once again putting his hand in front of him and balling it into a tight fist. His eyes were now filled with determination and confidence. "_Now_ it's off to Tiberia!"


	19. Tiberia

"Well, if we want to get to Tiberia, we'd better leave now," Cesara said rather confidently.

"Huh?" Lloyd asked, slightly confused. "Why now?"

"You'll see," Cesara said as she walked towards the front door to Zelos's mansion. "Come on."

Kratos started following Cesara without saying so much as a word. Lloyd was confused as to why Cesara thought they had to leave so quickly, but it sounded like she knew what she was talking about.

"See ya, guys," Lloyd said as he waved good-bye to all his friends in the mansion.

"Bye," said Zelos, Genis and Raine in unison.

Lloyd gave one last smile to all of them, and then walked out the door and followed Kratos and Cesara. The three of them started walking away when Kratos brought up the question, "Where do we have to go to reach Tiberia?"

"A town called Iselia," Cesara cheerfully replied.

"Iselia?" Lloyd asked with the amount of shock in his voice very high. "Why there?"

"You'll see," Cesara said. "Do you know how to get there?"

"Yeah," Lloyd said. "But…it's a bit of a walk. It'll be several hours before we make it there."

Cesara now looked a bit worried. "It's that far away? We have to make it there by the time the night is over."

"Eh…that's not going to happen," Lloyd said, looking down at the ground and pretending to be scratching the back of his neck.

"Wait," Kratos said. "We can use our teleporters, Lloyd."

"Huh?" Lloyd asked. "Oh, right!"

Lloyd reached inside his red cloth shirt and pulled out the small device that Yuan and Kratos had been working on for a while: the teleporter.

"What are those?" Cesara asked.

"They can take us places that we've designed them to," Kratos answered. "We can get to Iselia in the blink of an eye with these."

"Splendid!" Cesara yelled with a large smile on her face.

Lloyd stared at Cesara with a confused and slightly suspicious face. He raised an eyebrow at her as she started getting really excited. Why was she so thrilled about the fact that they'd be able to go to Tiberia that night?

Moments later, Kratos hit the button on his teleporter and all of them were engulfed in the bright lights. The lights closed in on them more and more, and soon, the lights disappeared in an instant. When the lights were gone, the trio found themselves just outside of Iselia.

Cesara started quickly walking into the quiet little town without saying anything to either Kratos or Lloyd. The two of them stared at her for a while before Lloyd finally broke the silence.

"Well, let's go," Lloyd said as he started walking after Cesara.

"Lloyd?" Kratos asked after his son had walked a few steps away from him.

Lloyd froze in his tracks and turned his head back to Kratos. "What is it?"

"Don't die, Lloyd," Kratos cautioned.

Lloyd's expression turned into an upset one. He hated it when Kratos said that. But before now, he always took it as just something to make him more careful. This time, however, Lloyd turned the comment back.

"You watch out for yourself," the young swordsman shot back.

Kratos smirked. "I'm over 4,000 years old and show no signs of dying anytime soon."

After he said those words to Lloyd, Kratos walked into Iselia after Cesara. Lloyd quickly followed the Seraphim and both of them started looking for Cesara.

"Over here!" they heard a feminine voice call a short while after they walked inside the village. Kratos and Lloyd turned to the side and saw that Cesara was standing above a patch of grass that was illuminated. The grass was a pure white color and a mystic light was coming from it.

"What the?..." Lloyd asked. "What's that?"

"It's a portal to Tiberia," Cesara replied. "Whenever Tiberia is visible in the night time sky, it looks like a flashing red star. When the star is visible, it opens up a portal from there to here."

"Flashing red star?" Lloyd asked. He then looked up at the night sky and tried to figure out which one Cesara was talking about, and it didn't take long at all. "It's that one…" Lloyd said in disbelief.

When Lloyd saw the star, he realized that it was the one he and Colette were staring at the first time they went to Sybak to do some research. (back in Chapter 6) Lloyd never would have thought that the star he and Colette were looking at would turn out to be the decisive element in creating the portal between Aselia and the two worlds.

"How did you know about this?" Kratos suspiciously asked.

"I work at the research academy, remember?" Cesara asked. "I read about this a while ago and just remembered it now."

"So…_that's_ why you wanted us to get to Iselia before nightfall," Lloyd said, putting two fingers on his chin.

"Yes," Cesara said. "Because the stars would not be visible during the daytime, so therefore we wouldn't be able to make it to Tiberia."

"No more talking," Kratos calmly commanded. "We have to get there quickly."

"Right," Lloyd said. "Come on, Cesara."

Cesara quickly nodded her head. The three of them bent over and touched the glowing grass. The light started getting even brighter and was getting to the point where it could practically blind someone.

After the bright light reached its peak, the entire area went white around them. For a few brief seconds, it looked like the three of them were standing in a completely white abyss. After several more seconds, it cleared, and the three found themselves in what looked like a rather sophisticated looking kingdom.

The ground beneath them was fitted with several large rocks cemented together. There were several small, yet sturdy houses lining the sides of the road where men, women and children were living.

"Gee," Lloyd said when he saw that Tiberia looked very peaceful. "I can see Stromm wanting to protect us from this place's military, but I can't understand him wanting to destroy the whole world with all these innocent and happy people living on it…"

That's when Lloyd realized how hard this entire ordeal was really going to become. How was he going to stop Kayne and Skelter from destroying Aselia with the crystal when there were this many innocent people at stake?

"Lloyd," Kratos said. "We have to make way to the headquarters where Kayne probably is. Let's go."

"Right," Lloyd said.

Lloyd, Kratos and Cesara started wandering the streets of Tiberia, looking for any place where Kayne could be lurking, ready to wreak havoc with the powerful crystal. In no time, they found a giant building that looked like it could very possibly be a military stronghold.

"Oh, great," Lloyd said when he saw the building. "They got guards all over the place. How are we going to break in?"

"Don't worry," Kratos said. "Let's just get rid of the two guards at the front door. When I say so, you and I will both cast a demon fang, got it?"

"Got it," Lloyd understood.

Kratos gave the signal, and he and Lloyd cast a Demon Fang that made its way over to each of the guards, knocking them out cold. Lloyd and Kratos sheathed their swords and ran in the front door past the two unconscious guards.

"Okay," Lloyd said when they had gotten inside the base. "That was pretty easy. All we gotta do is find Kayne and stop him from using the laser to destroy our world!"

The inside of the base looked very similar to Stromm's base. It had long and dark hallways, but there was just something that seemed more treacherous about it. The building was massive on the inside and it was empty for some reason.

"Where do you suppose Kayne would be?" Kratos asked, seeing if Lloyd had any idea where they could find their enemy.

"I don't know," Lloyd admitted. "Do you have any idea, Cesara?...Cesara?"

Lloyd and Kratos looked around, and just like that, Cesara was gone.

"Oh, no!" Lloyd said, immediately fearing the worst. He cuffed his hands around his mouth and started screaming Cesara's name.

"Lloyd!" Kratos scolded, "do you want everyone to hear you?"

"It's okay, I'm right here," said a feminine voice a short while away. Lloyd and Kratos looked up, and Cesara was running right towards them. Somehow she had gotten in front of them and was apparently quite a distance ahead.

"Where were you?" Lloyd asked, concern and frustrating growing in his voice. "Don't ever run off like that again!"

"I'm sorry," Cesara apologized. "I…guess I just got lost. This is a pretty big place, after all."

"I guess so," Lloyd said. "All right, enough of this. Let's get back to looking for Kayne."

The trio started making their way very quickly through the giant military base. They checked through room after room, looking for Kayne, the crystal or Skelter. Finally, they saw a room at the end of a long hallway. The three of them walked in and saw Kayne standing in front of a giant television screen. He appeared to be talking to the person on the screen.

"…are you sure that's the same Kratos?" the figure on the television screen asked. His hair looked somewhat similar to Kayne's in terms of its fiery color, but his eyes were a pale blue. He was wearing armor that looked like dark yellow and had several badges and medals on it, indicating his implied high rank.

"There's no doubt about it," Kayne said. "That man was Kratos and the younger one in the red was his son, Lloyd."

"I just find it hard to believe that that was actually Kratos for the Kharlan War," the man on the screen said.

"As hard as it may be to believe, it's true," Kayne replied, apparently not aware of the fact that Kratos, Lloyd and Cesara were standing just a few yards behind him.

"Kayne!" yelled Lloyd after he had heard enough of the discussion.

The image on the television screen suddenly blacked out and Kayne turned around. His hair was no longer flat like it had been the last time they had seen him. Now, his hair seemed even redder and was spiked.

"Like my new uniform?" Kayne asked, tugging at the military suit he was wearing. The top was entirely black, and the pants were dark gray. There were a few merits on his black shirt that were blood red in color. It was obviously a very high ranked uniform as well. "It's all thanks to you that I have it."

"Kayne, why do you want to destroy our world?" Lloyd yelled.

Kayne started snickering. "I'm afraid that's not for you to know. It's none of your business."

"Really?" Lloyd sharply said. "Then how about I _make_ it my business!"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Kayne said. He pulled out a giant sword that was sheathed in his belt. The sword was icy blue and had two sharp prongs sticking out from the tip of the main blade. It was quite an upgrade from the boomerang he had before.

Lloyd unsheathed his material blades and Kratos unsheathed his sword as well. Cesara, meanwhile, was now acting like she was freaked out by the fact that that were three fairly hardened warriors about to engage in combat while she was completely helpless and unarmed.

Kayne pointed the tip of his sword at Lloyd and started charging at him. Lloyd jumped in the air and leaped out of the path of the sword, just as it was about ready to impale him.

Lloyd took both of his material blades and started slicing at the air around Kayne's head, but Kayne kept ducking out of the way just in time before the blades would have come in contact with him.

"Lloyd!" Kratos yelled. He pointed his sword at the ceiling and launched a fireball at it, causing part of the ceiling to collapse and fall to the ground.

Lloyd and Kayne jumped out of the way just before the ceiling was about to crush both of them.

Cesara let out a loud shriek of terror as she ran to the corner of the room and began cowering.

The fight was becoming very violent as the three swordsmen began clashing their swords together quickly. If any one of them let their guard down for a second, then it would mean certain doom for them.

Finally, Kayne let out a surprise attack by moving the butt of his sword backwards and bashing Lloyd in the side of the head with it. Lloyd got knocked to the ground and even temporarily unconscious.

With Lloyd no longer a threat, Kayne turned his attention back to Kratos and gave him a hard kick in the stomach. Kratos got slammed back into a wall, surprised by the amount of force behind Kayne's kick.

Kayne didn't waste any time before he continued his attack. He took his pronged sword and was about to thrust it right through Kratos.

Gasping at seeing how imminent his death now was, Kratos put out his hand and grabbed the two prongs on the sword and started to push back.

Kratos grunted and his hands shook violently as Kayne tried to push through Kratos's resistance. For Kratos, it was no use. Kayne was surprisingly strong and kept pushing the prongs (and the blade itself) closer into Kratos.

Finally, Kratos had one last burst of strength and was able to push the sword away, knocking Kayne back with it. At that moment, Lloyd was also starting to return back to his senses.

Kayne gave Kratos a nasty look. "You got lucky…_that_ time!" he said coldly.

As he was about to continue his attack on Kratos, Lloyd saw that Kayne had really tired Kratos out and was ready to take advantage of it.

Without even thinking, Lloyd sprinted over to Kayne and started to swing his flamberge right at the back of Kayne's neck. But Kayne was somehow able to sense it and he whipped around, parrying Lloyd's flamberge with his pronged sword.

Lloyd and Kayne were soon dueling at a very fast pace. Both of them were swinging their swords very violently and quickly at each other, only to have the other block it and immediately strike back. In less than ten seconds, the two of them had already either blocked or attacked a total of over fifteen times.

Finally, Kayne did something unexpected. He jumped back from the battle and ran over to the corner where Cesara was hiding. Cesara let out a bloodcurdling and terrified scream when Kayne started to hold her hostage.

"If you follow me, this woman dies!" Kayne threatened as he put his sword right under her throat.

Saying this, Kayne forced Cesara out of the room with him. Lloyd and Kratos could hear Kayne running down the hall, with Cesara's screams of terror slowly dying down as they got further and further away.


	20. Raid on the Headquarters

Hi everyone. I just want to continue thanking Leppers and Christoph for reviewing this story. As you guys know, reviews mean a lot to me and they keep me going, especially when writing a story like this one. However, I think there's something you guys should know. Tomorrow I'm going to Florida, and I'm going to be there for about a week. That means that a week is going to go by without an update for this story. Just thought you guys should know.

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Lloyd and Kratos didn't know what to do. Cesara, their only ally in Tiberia, had just been kidnapped by Kayne. The father-son duo wanted nothing more than to charge after Kayne and beat him to a bloody pulp, but now that he was threatening Cesara's life, they didn't think going after Kayne would be the smartest move.

"Dammit!" Lloyd said when Kayne was out of earshot. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

"We cannot risk her life," Kratos calmly stated. "I think we should just look around to see if the crystal is here and hope for the best."

"But Kratos, we can't just leave Cesara to die at Kayne's hands."

"Lloyd, we need to find the crystal," Kratos persisted. "That's our main objective right now. If Cesara's life is sacrificed when trying to obtain, then that would be unfortunate indeed. However, we need to set our sights on what we're _really_ trying to save."

Lloyd thought Kratos was sounding a bit colder and more determined than normal. And there was something in his voice that made him sound more obsessed with finding the crystal. Why didn't he have this kind of enthusiasm before?

"Fine," Lloyd said. "But I don't think we should head after Cesara right now. Kayne's probably still expecting an attack from us and he's probably still on his guards."

"For once Lloyd, I think you said something smart," Kratos said as he crossed his arms.

Lloyd immediately started looking defensive. "What do you mean 'for once'!"

Without answering, Kratos walked out of the room and down the long hall. (leaving Lloyd rather ticked off for not getting an answer)

In a matter of minutes, Lloyd and Kratos were out of the headquarters and were outside on Tiberia's streets again. Both of them looked around as they silently started thinking about what they should do next.

"What now?" Lloyd asked.

"I presume we should spend the night somewhere where we won't be seen," Kratos deduced in a reasonable tone.

"Like where?" Lloyd asked.

Kratos turned away from his son. "Probably somewhere on the outskirts of town, like a campsite or something like that."

"Uh…all right," Lloyd said, not sure he knew why Kratos was suggesting somewhere like that.

Kratos started walking away from Lloyd and looked through the entire town, hoping to find an exit to the town. It took the two quite a while as they pushed themselves through the town and often times wound up going in circles.

After the longest time, Lloyd and Kratos found their way out of the fairly large Tiberian town and saw that right in front of them was a large field of lush, green grass. The entire place looked beautiful and seemed like an ideal place to relax.

"I can't even imagine Stromm wanting to destroy a world like this," Lloyd said, entranced by how peaceful the entire place looked.

"Lloyd, we can't worry about that now. Stromm is dead and there is nothing we can do about that," Kratos reminded.

The day slowly wasted away. The sun went down, and the sky in Tiberia was soon thrown into night. There were stars in the sky, and being in an open field just made the entire scene look much nicer.

Lloyd and Kratos were going to sleep out in the field that night. They had gathered some wood and Kratos used some of his magic to ignite it, creating a small fire that would keep them warm when the daytime air died down.

As the day came to its close and the stars started filling up the sky, Lloyd and Kratos both were lying on their backs and just staring up at them. Kratos's fascination with the stars seemed to have rubbed off on Lloyd, because Lloyd looked like he was looking for some sort of message within them.

Kratos seemed to be grunting for a while, and Lloyd was getting pretty curious as to why. When asked, Kratos started acting a bit defensively.

"Lloyd, we need to find that crystal," Kratos urged.

"Of course we do!" Lloyd said. "If we don't get it, Aselia is doomed!"

"Yes," Kratos replied. "We must get it now."

Lloyd was now hearing some determination in Kratos's voice that he had never heard before.

"Kratos…is something wrong? You sound like you've got something on your mind."

"I'm fine. Now if you'll excuse me…"

Kratos got up and started walking away from Lloyd, but not too far away. He then just started staring up at the stars again, and it sounded like he was muttering something a name under his breath. It sounded like he was muttering "_Anna…"_

Lloyd forced himself up and stormed over to Kratos. "There _is_ something wrong! Now what is it!"

"It's nothing," Kratos said, trying his best to shrug the matter off.

"Yeah, right!" Lloyd snapped. "Why did I just hear you mumble mom's name? And why do you seem like you're so deep in thought? What are you thinking about?"

Kratos sighed. He then sat down on the grass and looked down at the ground. "If you must know…"

Lloyd gently sat down next to his father on the cool grass and listened to what he was about to hear.

"Lloyd, as you're aware, that crystal that Kayne manipulated us into stealing has very great power inside of it," Kratos said, making sure Lloyd understood everything.

"Of course I am," Lloyd answered.

"Lloyd, I've thought about it. What if that crystal did indeed have the power to revive Anna?"

Lloyd froze up, and suddenly it felt like everything in his body completely froze in its tracks. "Wh…what do you mean?"

"I mean, if that crystal can power a giant weapon that can completely destroy a planet, would it not make sense to assume it has the power to awaken the dead as well?"

Lloyd never thought about it like that. Kratos _did_ have a point, though. Wouldn't it be logical that a tool like that mysterious crystal would have the power to revive someone? It was definitely worth a shot.

"You're right," Lloyd said in complete amazement. "We _could_ do that! You and I could steal that crystal back from Kayne, stop him from destroying our world, and then resurrect mom with it! Kratos, you're a genius!"

Kratos smirked at the compliment. "Let's worry about the matter at hand right now, though." It was obvious that he had the thought of bringing back his wife on his mind much more than he did saving the world. But then, who could really blame him?

Not only did that seem like a brilliant idea, but now Kratos and Lloyd had more motivation than ever to steal the crystal back. Maybe getting that crystal back really was the answer to them becoming a happy family again like they were all those years ago before Kvar interfered.

"All right!" Lloyd said. "What are we waiting for? Why don't we bust into the headquarters now?"

"That would actually be a good idea," Kratos admitted. "It's unlikely they'll be expecting an attack from people like us during the night."

"Great!" Lloyd said. "Let's go!"

In order to avoid detection, the two of them found their way back to the town and quietly snuck in. The town looked like it had a very small amount of night-life to it, with only a few lights being on in the houses and the public buildings.

They saw the massive headquarters at the head of the town when they had walked though it enough. There were obviously a few guards standing there and making sure no one got in, but Lloyd thought he had a plan to avert this.

"Watch this!" Lloyd said. He then jumped in the air and tried to sprout his angel wings, only to find that once again, he couldn't. He ended up just falling flat on his face on the hard, cobblestone ground.

Kratos only groaned with embarrassment as he covered his eyes with his hand, looked down at the ground and shook his head. He was shocked to see Lloyd was still making mistakes like that.

"Gah…dammit!" Lloyd screamed when he got up off the ground with a fairly visible ground imprint on his face. "How come my stupid wings won't come out? Kratos, try yours!"

"Lloyd, mine won't come out either," Kratos assured.

"Why not!"

"No time to explain that now. Right now, we must focus on our main objective, and that's finding a way inside that headquarters and stealing the crystal."

Saying this, Kratos just walked away. Lloyd continued staring at Kratos, very confused. But now he was a bit concerned. Kratos must _really_ have wanted to see Anna again. Exactly how far was he willing to go to see it happen?

Kratos and Lloyd went up to the headquarters and saw how menacingly it was looming.

"And to think…something that could destroy our world AND resurrect mom is in that building," Lloyd said as he stared at it with wide eyes. "This is it, Kratos. Are you ready?"

"Ready," Kratos said in a decisive manner. "I'm ready for this thirteen-year nightmare to come to an end."

He and Lloyd immediately started charging forward into the headquarters, quickly slicing through the two guards standing at the door. When both of those guards fell, Lloyd and Kratos ran inside the headquarters and started looking for the crystal and Kayne. (hoping he hadn't done anything to Cesara)

After the two of them charged in, several more guards started charging right at them inside. It looked like there were easily fifteen guards, greatly outnumbering Lloyd and Kratos.

"Give them no quarter!" Kratos commanded as he started charging in. He drew his sword and started clashing his with all the boomerangs that the Tiberian grunts were throwing at him.

"Got it!" Lloyd said. He unsheathed both of his material blades and started running at all the soldiers that were coming towards him.

Lloyd made one quick slash after another as he sliced across all of them that got to close to him.

One Tiberian decided throwing bladed boomerangs wasn't going to do him any good and instead tried to stab Lloyd with the end of it. But Lloyd saw this coming and was able to duck out of the way at the last moment, causing the Tiberian to get his weapon stuck in the wall. Before he could pull it out, Lloyd stuck his Vorpal Sword right into the Tiberian's gut and pulled it out forcefully, leaving frozen blood on the blade.

The fight continued until Lloyd and Kratos had managed to finish off the last of the Tiberians. Then the two of them continued running down the long hall to the headquarters as fast as possible.

"Kayne must be on the top floor," Kratos concluded.

"You think so?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes. I'm guessing he's where the weapon is, and it would make sense for the weapon to be on the top so it can get the greatest view possible from the base."

"I guess," Lloyd said. "Okay then, let's get to that top floor!"

Both of them started running their hardest up some of the flights of stairs until they saw an elevator at the end of one of the hallways. They started running towards it until another wave of Tiberians shot out from the side rooms, armed and ready to annihilate.

Lloyd and Kratos got on their guard and immediately started swinging their swords as quickly as they could, making swift and painful cuts across any part of the Tiberians that they came into contact with.

When there was only one Tiberian left, he obviously looked scared when he saw Lloyd and Kratos practically uninjured. (not to mention seeing all of his comrades lying on the floor in a puddle of blood)

The cowardly Tiberian soldier started to run away, but Kratos just pointed his sword at him and cast a quick air thrust, dicing the Tiberian to pieces in mid air.

"Nice work, Kratos," Lloyd said after the last enemy had been defeated.

"No time for that," Kratos insisted. "We have to get to the elevator now. We have to stop Kayne before it's too late."

"Right. Let's go!"

Lloyd and Kratos started charging at the elevator, but just as they got to it, the doors opened on their own. Standing in the elevator almost as if he were waiting for them was a man with messy black hair and skin that was so tan it was practically gold. His teeth were grit, showing how dirty they were. It was Skelter.

"Move out of the way," Lloyd threatened as he pointed both of his material blades at the pirate.

Skelter started sneering at Lloyd, then drew his own scimitar and pointed it back. "This is as far as you go, kid!"


	21. Their Fourth Fight

Hi guys. Wow, a week has passed already. Well, time to get back to work then. I know you're all probably dying to see how the fight with Skelter goes, right?...right? Anyway, before I start this chapter, I want you guys to know that I have made some serious progress over my vacation of outlining my next story after this one, which is the eighteenth story in my Ross and Mike series and it will go up later next month. But this one is going to be making several references to the other 17, starting with the first one I wrote almost five years ago. So if you want to read The End of Time (the name of the new Ross and Mike story) when it gets posted, you'll probably want to check out the summary of the series in the Goosebumps section on August 20, which is the day I plan on posting it. If you're confused or want to learn more about this, please check it out in my profile. Anyway, enough of that. On with the story!

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Not in the mood for any garbage, Lloyd and Kratos immediately drew their two swords while Skelter was on his guard, ready to counterattack either of the two.

Lloyd charged with his two material blades pointing right at the pirate, but Skelter swung his scimitar with brute force and knocked one of the swords out of Lloyd's hands, leaving him with only one.

Lloyd clutched his only sword (his Flamberge) with both hands and he and Skelter started dueling with their two swords.

"Lloyd!" Kratos yelled as he saw that his son was starting to lose the fight. Lloyd wasn't used to fighting with only one sword, so that definitely gave Skelter an advantage. To help Lloyd, Kratos pointed out his sword and cast a quick fireball at Skelter.

Skelter saw the flames coming right at him and ducked out of the way. The small fires flew right over his head and hit the wall to the side of him, turning a burnt black afterward.

Skelter now saw he was in trouble with Kratos closing in on him. Soon, he was surrounded with Lloyd and Kratos ready to strike him simultaneously, finishing him.

But Lloyd ruined the plan by swinging his sword a bit too early. It gave Skelter plenty of time to jump out of the way of his swing, but it also left him plenty of room to make a getaway when Lloyd was recovering from the recoil of his swipe.

After Lloyd swung, Skelter jumped out of the way with all the free space he had, and now he was back in the open part of the room.

Now Skelter had his turn to attack. He ran to the back of the room, and when Kratos and Lloyd were turning around to start chasing after him.

Skelter then started charging back at his two enemies, so it was essentially the three of them out to collide.

As soon as they would have crashed, Skelter jumped surprisingly high into the air, but it seemed Kratos was anticipating that move, because he ducked below and stuck his sword upward and Skelter fell onto it when he was heading back towards the ground.

The end of Kratos's sword pierced Skelter. As he fell to the ground, Skelter pushed himself up with a giant gash on his abdomen where the sword pierced him. Blood was gushing from it, but he wasn't acting like he was in that much pain.

Meanwhile, Lloyd had run over to where he dropped his Vorpal Sword and picked it up. Just like that, he was dangerous again.

Skelter was now limping away from his two foes and drew his sword when he was a long distance away. He obviously couldn't hold out much longer, but he was still fighting hard.

"_Wow, I guess you can go through a lot and still fight hard when you've been a pirate since you were five," _Lloyd considered when he saw that Skelter still wouldn't go down, even though he was mortally wounded.

Skelter drew his sword again and seemed even deadlier than he did before. He was fighting with much more aggression and speed than he did prior to Kratos giving him the stab wound. In fact, it was even a bit harder for Lloyd and Kratos to concentrate, because the squirts of blood that were coming out of Skelter's injury proved to be a distraction.

Kratos tried running over to Skelter and giving him a quick slash, but Skelter turned out to be surprisingly fast. He slashed his sword at Kratos's knee, skimming it and causing a small, but very painful scratch.

As Kratos grunted and quickly cast first aid on himself, Lloyd ran over to Skelter and tried to strike him from behind, but Skelter was able to detect Lloyd coming and turned around. He blocked Lloyd's Vorpal Sword with his scimitar. In no time, the two of them were dueling viciously. Lloyd and Skelter alternated between swinging their sword and parrying their opponent's.

Kratos finally got back on his two feet, stable. He saw that Lloyd was struggling just to keep Skelter occupied, so he knew he had to act now.

When Skelter was about to swing his sword again and repeat the pattern he and Lloyd had been following when they were dueling, Kratos ran up from behind and stuck his sword right into Skelter's back, and then forcefully pulled it out.

Skelter made a small groaning noise and his eyes widened. He sounded like he was choking, but then without a word, he fell onto the ground, dead.

Lloyd was panting heavily. He sheathed both of his material blades and bent over and supported himself by placing his hands on his knees. Kratos, meanwhile, casually placed his sword back in its sheath and crossed his arms.

Once Lloyd got a few moments to catch his breath, he looked up at Kratos. "Thanks," he said heavily.

"We have no time for that," Kratos insisted. "Cesara is still in danger and we'd better save her before Kayne does something really bad to her."

Lloyd suddenly shot up as if he had been automatically rejuvenated. "I know. Let's go!"

Lloyd and Kratos ran into the elevator that Skelter had been guarding. They hit the button to go to the top floor, assuming that's where Kayne was holding Cesara hostage.

When the doors on the top floor opened, they were greeted by the long, seemingly never ending hallway. Both of them bolted through the halls and headed towards the room at the very end.

When they got there, they saw that Kayne was indeed in the room, and he had Cesara with him. She looked terrified of what was going on.

"How did you manage to make it past Skelter?" Kayne yelled.

"None of your business!" Lloyd yelled.

Kayne just laughed. For some reason, just seeing him intimidated Lloyd. Lloyd didn't notice for a while that Kayne was causing him to shake.

"Well, then, I'm sure you won't mind me taking this lovely lady into the dungeon," Kayne said in a nasty way. "You want her? Come and get her!"

Kayne grabbed Cesara by the arm and forcefully pulled her out with him. The two of them were practically flying down the hall, mainly due to how fast Kayne was forcing Cesara to move.

Lloyd and Kratos stood there, not knowing what to do. Did they want to follow Kayne? He said he was taking Cesara down into a dungeon. Who knows what he could do to her down there? Would it be safer to launch a surprise attack or something of that sort?

"Kratos, what do we do?" Lloyd asked, uncertain.

"I regret to say I don't know," Kratos answered.

Then the two of them heard Kayne step into the elevator at the far end of the hall, and seemingly in a split second, he decided he wasn't going to let Kayne get away. He ran out of the door, leaving Kratos in his dust.

"Lloyd! Wait!" Kratos yelled as he started running after his son.

Lloyd and Kratos were running down the hall, and Lloyd had a fairly large lead. They both got to the end of the hall and saw Kayne and Cesara in the elevator. Cesara was scared to tears when Kayne closed the door just as Lloyd was ready to run in and get Cesara back.

"Dammit!" Lloyd screamed as he kicked the metal door to the elevator. "He got away!"

"Wait, Lloyd," Kratos said in his calm voice. "Look."

Kratos pointed to a long line of thick-glass windows lining the side of the wall. Looking out of the window would give an obvious indication on exactly how high the two of them really were.

"So?" Lloyd asked, not sure what Kratos was getting at.

Kratos just sighed in exasperation and disappointed. He looked at the window and pointed his sword at it, quickly casting a demon fang on it. It caused the window to smash, creating an opening.

Kratos went over to the open window until he stood less than an inch from the edge of it. He then looked at Lloyd with an almost sorrowful look, then jumped out of it quickly.

Lloyd gasped, and then screamed "Kratos!" loudly. He ran over to the window Kratos had jumped out of and looked down, not seeing a thing. He then slowly looked up and saw Kratos had sprouted his angel wings and floated right in front of him.

"Dare I ask what you thought I was doing?" Kratos said in a concerned way to his son.

Lloyd let out a nervous laugh. "I thought you were…you know, about to…"

Kratos sighed. "I was sprouting my wings so we could follow that elevator, not so I could commit suicide. I'm 4,000 years old and I'm showing no signs in dying anytime soon."

Lloyd just rolled his eyes, and then he sprouted his own wings. He flew out of the smashed open window next to Kratos, and the two of them were soon flying outside the very top floor of the massive headquarters.

"Hmmmm…" Lloyd said when he turned to the side. He was staring at a massive tower that was standing several yards away from them. "I wonder what that tower is? What do you think, Kratos?...Kratos?"

Kratos had flown away, and Lloyd had to really start flying fast in order to catch up with him. In just a matter of moments, both he and Kratos were actually staring at the elevator that Kayne was in as he was leading Cesara into the dungeon.

Lloyd and Kratos slowly flapped their wings as they tried to follow Kayne's elevator. But then, when the elevator car reached the ground, it continued going down.

"Whoa!" Lloyd said. "That car just went into the ground. Do you think it broke and didn't stop in time?"

Kratos sighed at Lloyd's ignorance. "It didn't break; the elevator went into the building's basement. That's obviously where the dungeon is that he's planning on putting Cesara in."

"Oh," Lloyd casually said.

"Come," Kratos said as he gently tapped down onto the ground and folded his wings back up. "Let's leave here for now and think about what we're going to do."

Not really sure why Kratos was ditching at this point, Lloyd listened to Kratos and started walking away from the headquarters with him. The two of them went back to where they had camped a little while before.

Lloyd kicked the ground once they got back to their campsite. "Dammit! Why did we have to leave!"

"Lloyd, calm down," Kratos said, trying his best to get his overbearing son to relax. "It was the smart thing to do."

Lloyd whipped around and started staring at Kratos angrily. "What do you mean 'it was the smart thing to do'! Cesara's locked up in that dungeon now! Who knows what Kayne is doing to her in there!"

"Lloyd, that base has guards all over the place. If we were to go in there, we would be caught for sure. That's the last thing we'd want."

"Come on, Kratos!" Lloyd whined. "Cesara is in danger! We can't just leave her like that!"

"Lloyd, I'm sorry," Kratos apologized. "But we must do the safe thing. And I think sacrificing the life of one person isn't a good thing, but it's better than risking the existence of an entire world. Do you not agree?"

There was obviously a lot of tension growing between the two now. Lloyd thought they needed to do everything they could to rescue Cesara, but Kratos didn't think that would be the smartest move.

"Kratos! Cesara has helped us out over and over! If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't even _be_ in Tiberia! We gotta help her!"

"Lloyd! I said no!" Kratos said loudly, getting angry and defensive.

"I don't care what you say!" Lloyd snapped back. "If you don't want to save Cesara,_ I_ will!"

Lloyd started walking passed Kratos and back towards the headquarters where Cesara was being held hostage, but he was blocked. Kratos drew his sword in less than a second and horizontally stuck it out right in front of Lloyd, blocking his path.

"Lloyd, you may be my son, but I'm not going to hesitate to use any measures necessary to make sure we don't ruin our objective," Kratos said.

"Kratos, get your sword out of my way!" Lloyd yelled.

"No."

"Fine then. I'll _make_ you move it!"

Kratos's eyes widened, but his expression remained the same. "You wish to fight me?"

"If it's the only way to get you to back off and to let me do what's right!" Lloyd yelled, stepping away from Kratos but not turning his back to him. "I'm one-for-three against you, anyway!"

Kratos grit his teeth and he suddenly looked very angry and aggressive. He put his sword into a fighting position.

Lloyd drew both of his material blades, and the father-son duo glared at each other, ready to engage in combat where the victor would make a decision that would make-or-break their quest to save Aselia from Tiberia.


	22. Double Header

Hmmmmmmm…no reviews. Not exactly the kind of "welcome back" I was hoping for, especially considering the cliffhanger I thought I was leaving. Oh well, on with the story. (please keep reviewing. I know you guys are reading this, the stats page for this story says that you are!)

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"Don't think I'm gonna hold back," Kratos warned.

"I know you're not," Lloyd said. "And neither am I."

So for the fourth time Lloyd was fighting Kratos. He started the fight by charging in and swinging his flamberge right at Kratos's head. Kratos had to instantly duck from getting struck by the sword that was once his own.

After ducking very quickly and dodging Lloyd's swing, Kratos made a quick jump backwards and pointing his sword at Lloyd. With conviction in his voice, Kratos bellowed, "Air thrust!"

A swirl of violent winds suddenly clouded around Lloyd and lifted him up a few feet into the air. Lloyd could feel the fierce winds as they felt like sharp knives as they raced around his body. After a few seconds, the attack stopped and Lloyd was dropped onto the ground.

Lloyd was a little bit injured, but he was far from losing. He got up and started running at Kratos with his two blades pointed right at him. Kratos dodged the blades at the last minute and tried to strike the back of Lloyd while his son was still running.

But Lloyd was able to turn around at the last second and put his vorpal sword up to block Kratos's attack. Before either of them knew it, it was Lloyd and Kratos locking swords and trying to push the other's away.

Lloyd and Kratos seemed to be putting up a challenging fight for each other, but after a long struggle, Lloyd was able to push Kratos's sword away and send the Seraphim hurtling to the ground.

As Kratos staggered up, Lloyd ran over to his dad and forcefully planted his foot on Kratos's chest, keeping him down. Lloyd then proceeded to putting his flamberge to Kratos's throat.

"It's over, dad," Lloyd said coldly.

But Kratos thought different. He used his two feet to kick Lloyd hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Kratos sprung himself up and was back on his guard.

Lloyd let a low growling sound come out from his mouth when he saw that Kratos wasn't going to go down so easy.

With both of them back on their feet and full of energy, they both started clashing their swords together in a violent fashion. For over a minute straight, the two did nothing other than swing their sword, have their opponent block it, then have their opponent try to attack and then parry it, and the process repeated itself over and over. (of course, it was all happening in less than two seconds)

But a good while into the violent clash, Kratos did a surprise attack and kicked Lloyd in the stomach, knocking him onto the ground.

When Lloyd fell, Kratos ran over to him and prepared to put a last strike on Lloyd to keep him down.

In one last desperate attempt, Lloyd sprouted his angelic wings and flew up into the air at the last possible moment.

Kratos responded by sprouting his own angel wings. In no time, the two of them were now taking their fight to the sky and clashing in mid air.

But Lloyd was clearly at a disadvantage now that they were flying. Kratos had the ability to cast long-range magic with his sword, but all Lloyd could do was physically attack. And since they were in the air, pulling off a successful physical attack would be much harder.

Kratos launched a quick fireball at Lloyd, but Lloyd had no trouble dodging it. But he did have trouble when Kratos started sending a stream of fireballs at Lloyd.

Instead of dodging them, Lloyd instead had to rely on his reflexes to deflect them as well as he possibly could. Lucky for him, he was able to reflect all of them.

Lloyd was starting to show signs of exhaustion, but Kratos was still going strong.

Kratos started putting Lloyd in a very difficult situation when he started centering all his magic on fire and releasing a series of eruptions right out from under Lloyd.

Lloyd had to dodge the giant explosions that were forming under him, as well as missing the blast of fire that was coming down from the sky that Kratos needed to cast the move.

Lloyd weaved his way around all the giant pillars of fire that were starting the explosions, much to Kratos's surprise. By the time Lloyd got through all the explosions and made it to Kratos, Lloyd's adrenaline made it impossible for him to stop.

Lloyd started kicking and smashing Kratos violently, and hearing the grunts from his father seemed to do nothing to stop him. Lloyd finished him off by taking his flamberge and reaching around, smashing it right into Kratos's back. While at the front, Lloyd simultaneously took his Vorpal Sword and smashed it over Kratos's head.

Kratos groaned in pain as Lloyd cast that move, and then his angel wings folded up and he fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Without even checking to see if his father was okay, Lloyd landed on the ground and started hurtling towards the headquarters.

When Lloyd finally made it there, he was still pumped from his fight with Kratos. He ran right into the headquarters and stuck one of his two material blades right through the gut of any Tiberian that tried to stop him.

After getting inside, Lloyd made his way down a long spiral staircase and into the dungeon. He was horrified at what he saw when he walked down. Cesara was chained to the wall, looking terrified and like she had just been through something awful. Kayne, meanwhile, was standing right in front of her, looking like he had just done something bad but was proud of it.

"Kayne!" Lloyd yelled full of rage.

Kayne slowly turned towards Lloyd. "Well, well, well, look who decided to show," Kayne said. "I guess it's clear you don't care about Cesara at all. I thought I told you she'd die if you followed."

"Yeah! Well, you can't expect me to do _nothing_, can you!" Lloyd screamed. He once again drew his material blades.

"You think you can stop me?" Kayne asked in a surprised tone but still retaining the smile on his face.

"I don't think I can…I _know_ I can!"

Kayne chuckled. "Big words for such an amateur swordsman. Where's your friend with the red hair?"

Without even answering his question, Lloyd charged in and started swinging his material blades at Kanye. The fight with Kayne, the one who betrayed them and set them up to have their world destroyed, was finally on.

Kayne drew his sword as well. Since his had two prongs on the side, Lloyd had to be especially careful when battling him.

Kayne and Lloyd started exchanging swings as loud clinging sounds filled the rooms and bounced off the stone walls. Cesara, meanwhile, was screaming in terror at seeing the fight that was going on in front of her.

Lloyd and Kayne continued fighting like fierce gladiators. At one point in the fight, Lloyd jumped on a rickety wooden table where there were numerous instruments of torture.

Lloyd picked up what looked like sharp needles with prongs on the end and started throwing them like knives at Kayne.

Kayne had to continuously duck and move out of the way. Lloyd could throw the prongs surprisingly well and he was launching them very fast and hard. Getting hit with a prong would certainly mean either death or a serious cripple.

Kayne eventually found his way to a corner and he picked up a large wooden pole with a pointed end. (it wasn't a spear, it was a device used for gauging peoples' eyes out) He started forcefully pushing it forward, trying to stab Lloyd with it.

But Lloyd didn't have a lot of trouble stopping the attack. All it took was a few quick swings of his material blades through the wooden pole to chop it off as if his swords were lasers going through foam.

Kayne realized that Lloyd was going to be a worth opponent, but he didn't let that intimidate him. Both of them continued fighting hard and strong.

Kayne jumped on the table that Lloyd was standing on and both of them started dueling on top of it.

As Lloyd and Kayne clashed their swords together, some of the clashing was actually drowned out by Cesara's screams. She sounded like she was horrified about what was happening around her. Sounded like it.

The fight on the table continued with Lloyd and Kayne just exchanging swings until Kayne got the upper hand. He managed to clash his sword with Lloyd's material blades too strong for Lloyd to handle. Lloyd got knocked off the table and onto the floor on his back.

As Lloyd started to get up, he saw Kayne leaning over the end of the table with his sword pointing right at him.

"Game over, Lloyd!" Kayne screamed. He was about to jump off the table with his sword going right through Lloyd, impaling him to the floor.

But just as he was about to jump off the table and do just that, a familiar voice screamed out, "Lloyd!"

Kayne turned around and got blasted by a quickly formed bolt of lightning. He was knocked off the table and started smoldering a little.

Lloyd looked up and saw Kratos standing in the doorway to the dungeon, not a moment too soon.

"Kratos!" Lloyd yelled, relieved to see that his father had just saved his life.

"I won't let you die, Lloyd!" Kratos said loudly as he ran into the room.

Kayne slowly got up and gave Lloyd and Kratos a nasty look. "Fine! I'll take on both of you at once if I have to!"

Just by saying that, Kayne was back on his guard and got ready to start attacking once again. But Lloyd and Kratos were now stronger as a team and weren't about to let Kayne win.

Kayne tried his best to keep up with Lloyd and Kratos. But he had a hard enough time keeping himself alive when fighting Lloyd alone. Now that Lloyd had Kratos to back him up, things were pretty much looking hopeless for him.

Realizing this, Kayne turned his back and he started fleeing for the exit to the dungeon. Lloyd started to chase after him, but Kratos stopped him.

"Lloyd, let him go. There's nothing he can do to us now," Kratos assured. "Why don't we just save Cesara and see if she learned anything useful."

Lloyd groaned that Kratos had possibly just blown the ideal time to kill Kayne, but he thought that maybe Kratos was right.

"All right."

Kratos went over to Cesara and undid the bolts that were chaining her to the wall. When she was released, she started breathing heavily and clasping her wrists, which were still aching from being trapped in the locks bolted onto the cold walls.

"Cesara, are you all right?" Lloyd asked, concerned.

"I'm fine, thank you," Cesara said. But Lloyd wasn't too sure; Cesara sounded like she was hyperventilating.

"Cesara, were you able to learn any information at all from Kayne about what he wants to do?" Kratos asked, staying dead serious and making sure they didn't get distracted.

"Yes, I did, actually," Cesara said, sounding like she was calming down a little.

"Really?" Lloyd asked, now gaining interest. "What did you find out?"

"Yes," Cesara said. "I found out that Kayne is planning on completely destroying your world with a giant space weapon."

"A giant space weapon?" Lloyd asked. "That has the power to destroy an entire planet?"

"Yes," Cesara said, starting to sound a little nervous. "After his promotion in getting the crystal from you, Kayne was put in charge of making sure that mission was a success. But that crystal turned out to be critical for the mission. That crystal has enough power in it to charge up the main weapon in the space station, and now that he has it, all he needs to do it use it."

"Dammit!" Lloyd said. "So _that's_ why he wanted the crystal so much! Erg…and to think I thought we were saving his world by getting that crystal for him!"

"Lloyd, we did save his world. Make no mistake about that," Kratos tried to say calmly. "We just had no idea it would in turn put ours at risk."

"Well…isn't there anything we can do about it!" Lloyd screamed.

"Actually, I know someone who has the necessary equipment to make you better weapons that will be useful for destroying the space station," Cesara chimed in, trying to sound helpful.

"Are you serious?" Lloyd asked with some life returning to him.

"Yes," Cesara said, smiling. "But it will take overnight for me to get them. Why don't you two get some rest?"

"Good thinking," Lloyd said. "Come on, Kratos. Let's find somewhere to crash for the night."


	23. The Eve of Battle

Sheesh. Two chapters in a row with no reviews. I hope this isn't turning into another _Descendant's Curse._ Well, I can only hope for the best review-wise now.

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Lloyd and Kratos walked away from Cesara and made their way towards the small town that was close by the Tiberian Headquarters. They both made their way down the night-time streets, which were practically deserted. The only signs of life were some lights glowing inside private homes and any companies that might have still been open. One of the lights that remained on was one in an inn.

"Great," Lloyd said when he saw the inn. "We can sleep there."

Kratos and Lloyd walked into the inn and talked to the man behind the counter. After agreeing to pay for one night, Kratos and Lloyd headed into a small room with a cheap, but attractive looking carpet and plain walls. There were just two beds with nothing special about them.

When both of them were in their separate beds, Lloyd couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned for a while, but he could sense that something wasn't right. He looked over at Kratos's bed and saw that Kratos was sitting up, staring outside and at the Tiberian Headquarters.

"…Kratos? Aren't you going to sleep?" Lloyd asked.

"I don't need it," Kratos calmly said. "Besides, I have too much to think about right now to sleep."

"Really?" Lloyd asked. "Like what?"

Kratos groaned. "I shouldn't have said that. Go back to sleep, Lloyd."

"Come on, Kratos. You can tell me. What is it? What's on your mind?"

Kratos remained silent.

"Kratos!"

Still silence.

"Does it have something to do with mom?" Lloyd asked, almost sounding sad.

Kratos sighed and turned around, then looked Lloyd in the eyes. Still, he didn't say anything for a long time.

"Don't worry," Lloyd tried to say lightly. "I know that we can not only save the world from retrieving that crystal from Kayne, but we can also bring mom back from the dead with it, right?"

"If he put that much power into the crystal, then yes, I would think so," Kratos answered.

Lloyd looked confused. "He? Who's 'he'?"

"Never mind," Kratos answered. "But yes. Finding that crystal and hoping to resurrect Anna has given me more motivation to do something that I've had in a long time. This is one time when I seriously do not want to fail. This mission means everything in the world to me."

"That's the spirit!" Lloyd said proudly when he saw how determined Kratos was to retrieve the crystal for the safety of the world and for his own benefits. "I got a feeling we're going to get a happy ending out of this."

Kratos looked concerned. "Lloyd, this isn't a fairy tale. There's no telling whether or not my plan will actually work or if we can get the crystal back. In fact, something even more drastic could happen."

"Aw, come on, Kratos," Lloyd said. "We've taken on tougher opponents than a guy like Kayne before."

Kratos only let out a small _hmmmmmmm_ as he turned away from Lloyd and continued staring at the headquarters. Tomorrow would be the day they were attack Kayne and get the crystal back, not only foiling his plans to destroy Aselia, but to bring Anna back and to hopefully make them all a family again. Tomorrow would be the final battle.

When the morning finally came, Lloyd and Kratos headed back to the front of the Tiberian Headquarters. Cesara was standing there, smiling at them as they approached.

"Hi," she said pleasantly. "Did you sleep well?"

"Fine," Lloyd said, not really caring. "Do you have those weapons?"

"Yes, I do," Cesara smiled as she pulled out the items that she acquired. She had one sword with a really long, thick blade, which was for Kratos. She had two slimmer blades which would go to Lloyd. And she also appeared to have some very small bombs.

"Thanks," Lloyd said as he took his new swords. "Where'd you get these?"

"I spent all night getting them in Tiberia Tower," Cesara said, sounding a little exhausted.

"Tiberia Tower?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes," Cesara said as she nodded her head. She turned around and pointed to a very tall tower in the distance. It looked like a normal building, except for a pointed top. The rest was just a skinny rectangle.

Lloyd decided to study the weapons more carefully. His sword had a piercing white blade with a mysterious red glow around it. Lloyd didn't know what was with the red glow, but he thought it looked cool, and that was way more than enough for him. (being the simple minded person he is) Kratos's sword looked pretty much the same, except the blade was thicker and heavier.

The bombs, on the other hand, looked just like little black boxes. REALLY LITTLE black boxes with a small, red flashing light on one part.

"Those are special detonators," Cesara explained. "They're capable of completely destroying anything they explode on, no matter how thick or strong."

"Awesome!" Lloyd said, pushing his fist in mid air. "We got this fight in the bag!"

"No need to get overconfident, Lloyd," Kratos said. "This is still going to be a tough fight, and Kayne is not one to be underestimated."

"Whatever," Lloyd said. "Let's just go!"

Lloyd and Kratos started running into the headquarters. "Good luck!" Cesara called after them.

In no time, both Lloyd and Kratos were inside, ready to fight Kayne one last time and make sure Tiberia would no longer be a threat to Aselia.

Lloyd and Kratos ran all the way up the winding stairs to the top of the headquarters, where Kayne was sure to be. When they both got to the door with Kayne behind it, they both took a deep breath.

"This is it, Kratos," Lloyd said. "Are you ready?"

"Lloyd, I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to retrieve that crystal," Kratos coolly said.

"All right!" Lloyd said, drawing the two swords Cesara had just given them. (they left their old weapons hidden under their beds in the Tiberian inn they slept at the night before)

Lloyd kicked the door open. The giant door flew open, showing Lloyd and Kratos that Kayne was staring out a giant window, but he knew they were there.

"Kayne, this is your last chance!" Lloyd yelled as he got his two red glowing swords in a fighting position. "Give us the crystal now or prepare to die!"

Kayne laughed and he slowly turned around. He saw the determined looks on Lloyd and Kratos's faces, only making him laugh a bit more. "You think you can stop me?"

"We don't think…we _know!_" Lloyd threatened.

Kayne sneered. "I see you're about as original as you were when I was fortunate enough to stumble upon you and your little friend on that island."

"Kayne, I'm serious!" Lloyd yelled. "What good will come out of you destroying an entire world of innocent people!"

"I don't have to listen to you," Kayne said. "Our space weapon is going to completely annihilate your planet. I shall give you the option of either watching it get destroyed or dying before it's destroyed, though, just because I'm so merciful."

"It's not going to get destroyed. Period!" Lloyd yelled.

"You even seem to lack that space station you speak of," Kratos pointed out.

An evil look spread over Kayne's face. "Really, then?"

He went over to the wall and lifted part of it up, revealing a button underneath it. The button was bright red and Kayne mashed it with the side of his fist. A loud _buzz_ sound was heard, and suddenly the entire room started to shake and rumble loudly. Lloyd and Kratos tried their best to stay on their feet.

Suddenly, they felt as if the room they were in had lifted off the ground. Kratos and Lloyd stumbled for a little bit as they tried to stay on their two feet, and when they got control again, they ran over to the giant window Kayne was staring out of.

To their shock, Lloyd and Kratos saw that they were no longer on Tiberia. Now, they were in outer space, seeing a never ending black abyss littered with white, shining stars. Right in front of them was a fairly large planet.

"Ha ha ha," Kayne said. "_Now_ can you see the space station!"

Lloyd couldn't believe it. He didn't think it was possible, but the Tiberia Headquarters _was_ the space station. The giant weapon must have been armed somewhere on it.

"Don't think you've won!" Lloyd yelled as he and Kratos drew their swords. "Prepare to die!"

Kayne pulled out his heavy, long, two-pronged sword and got ready to fight both of them. For some reason, he looked surprisingly confident.

"Well then…shall we?" Kayne said, getting his sword in fighting position.

"Bring it!" Lloyd screamed.

Lloyd and Kratos charged into the battle, ready to slice up Kayne as much as they had to in order to win. The stakes of losing were so high that neither Lloyd nor Kratos even wanted to consider it a possibility.

Unfortunately for them, that didn't look like it was happening. As soon as Kayne took one swing at Kratos's sword, Kratos's sword snapped in half like it was a twig.

"What the…" Kratos said in disbelief.

Lloyd didn't pay any attention to this, though. He started going after Kayne with his two swords. Unfortunately for Lloyd, once Kayne parried his two swords, Lloyd's two swords _also_ snapped.

Lloyd gasped when he saw that he and Kratos were now completely unarmed. In a fit of rage, Lloyd screamed at the top of his lungs, "CESARA!"

Grunting quickly, Kratos reached into his purple outfit and pulled out something small and threw it across the room. He then turned his attention to Lloyd and said loudly, "Lloyd, use your teleporter!"

Without even saying anything, Lloyd reached into his woven red shirt and pulled out the small little black box that functioned as their teleportation device. Lloyd pressed the button on it just as he was about to get stabbed by Kayne's triple-pointed sword.

Lloyd and Kratos were both whisked away by the bright lights, befuddling Kayne. When he saw the bright lights, he didn't know what was happening, so he stood away for his own protection.

When Kayne saw that the lights had disappeared around Lloyd and Kratos and the two of them were gone along with the lights, he slammed his sword on the metal floor. "Damn!"

Meanwhile, Lloyd and Kratos were just appearing on a solid rock platform overlooking a dark abyss. There were swirling clouds coming up, creating the illusion that the rock slab was actually falling in the abyss when really it was the black smoke that was rising.

"Are we in Derris-Kharlan?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes," Kratos said. "I threw me teleporter onto the floor right before I told you to push yours. That way, we can get back onto that space station whenever we want just by using yours."

"Oh. Good thinking," Lloyd complemented. "But what are we doing here?"

"I'm going to talk to Yuan about what just happened," Kratos said. "I want to make sure he understands everything that's going on."

Lloyd and Kratos walked down the solid Derris-Kharlan ground, not saying a word. Lloyd was too angry to say anything. Plus, all the thoughts about what just happened were running through his mind.

Kratos finally led Lloyd to Yuan, who was standing there with his arms crossed. Almost like he was expecting them.

"Kratos. Lloyd. What happened?" Yuan asked.

"We were just on Tiberia trying to fight Kayne," Lloyd said before Kratos had a chance to say anything. "But it turns out we were tricked."

"What do you mean 'you were tricked'?" Yuan asked.

"Cesara was helping us track down Kayne and find ways to stop him," Kratos explained.

"You mean that woman who you brought here a while ago?"

"Yes. Lloyd and I thought she was helping us out, when in reality, she was working with Kayne and probably alerting him on our every move."

"Yeah!" Lloyd yelled. "She was setting us up that whole time I'll bet! Dammit!"

Yuan smirked. "That's what you get for trusting a complete stranger. Lloyd, I'd at least have thought _you'd_ be smart enough to not trust someone who just pops up and says they're on your side after what Kratos did to you during the Journey of Regeneration."

Kratos seemed to get really tense when he recalled what Yuan was talking about, but before he could say anything to respond, Lloyd spoke up.

"It doesn't matter what happened on that journey anymore! Cesara set us up and almost got killed by Kayne. _That_ must have been why she didn't look like she was in any physical pain when I rescued her from the dungeon just a little while ago: she _wasn't_ tortured at all!"

"Heh," Kratos sneered. "She deceived us from the very beginning. And to think we actually fell for all those screams she made when Kayne was abducting her."

"She's a hell of an actress," Lloyd coldly said.

"And just what good are you doing here, talking to me about this?" Yuan asked. "Shouldn't you be more worried about getting back to Kayne and making sure he doesn't blow up your world?"

"Yeah, you're right," Lloyd said, ashamed of how side-tracked he had just gotten.

"Then why don't we head back to the inn we slept in last night and get our real weapons back?" Kratos suggested. "We can warp back to the space station from there."

"Space station?" Yuan asked. "I guess those guys really mean business."


	24. Revenge

Before I begin, I want to thank Christoph and Leppers for my two reviews last chapter. I actually think I ought to apologize for being a little short about not getting reviews for two chapters. Sheesh, maybe I do need to be a bit more patient. Oh well, sorry for complaining about not getting a review for the previous two chapters.

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"Then it's settled," Kratos said in a decisive voice. "Let's head back to the inn we stayed at on Tiberia and get our weapons back. We'll go back to stop Kayne and Cesara from there."

"Good thinking," Lloyd said.

Lloyd and Kratos had to go through the grueling process of heading to Iselia, then finding the portal there that would take them to Tiberia, and then heading back to the inn where they had slept the night before. (This was because of the fact that their teleporters weren't able to plain and simply warp to Tiberia itself)

Lloyd retrieved his material blades from under his bed from the night before, and Kratos was able to get his regular sword back.

"Lloyd, are you physically and mentally prepared?" Kratos asked. "Going up there to stop Kayne will be the final battle. Once we stop him, all we have to do is retrieve the crystal and the world will be saved."

"And we'll be able to bring mom back!" Lloyd said excitedly.

"Don't get too excited," Kratos cautioned. "Save it for when we're in battle."

Lloyd gently nodded his head, and then sheathed both of his swords. "All right, I'm ready."

Saying this, Lloyd took out his teleporter and hit the small button on it. After the lights took the duo away, they both found themselves back in the room they were fighting Kayne in only a little while before. Except now the room was completely deserted.

"Whoa," Lloyd exclaimed slowly and breathlessly as he looked out the giant windows that were easily four times his size. Looking out the window gave him a clear view of Aselia. It looked so peaceful, yet so defenseless. And if he and Kratos didn't hurry, then it would only be a pile of dust.

"Let's go look for Kayne, Cesara or the crystal," Kratos said.

"Yeah." Lloyd accepted.

Lloyd and Kratos started running through the giant space station as they hunted down Kayne and Cesara. The long, empty halls of the space station seemed devoid of any life, but there was just a menacing look to the silver stainless steel that supported the walls or the chrome colored tile.

Both swordsmen were running as fast as they could, hoping to locate either of their enemies or to find the crystal.

It looked hopeless for a while. Neither Lloyd nor Kratos heard anything in the distance that would signal a person was there, nor did there seem to be anything except the long empty halls.

"Where do you think Kayne and Cesara are?" Lloyd asked when he was sure it was safe enough to talk without being heard.

"I would presume they're either in the room with the crystal in it, or in the room with all the controls for the weapon."

They both continued looking, but they didn't have much luck. The deep vacuum of space seemed to make the entire station all the creepier, and the dead silence did not give a feeling of ease, despite how calm it was.

Lloyd and Kratos were getting very annoyed with the lack of success they had when they were trying to find an enemy or the crystal.

But that all changed when Lloyd and Kratos entered one room. Standing in the corner of what appeared to be a room that was meant for sleep was Cesara. She looked a little surprised to see them, but tried to keep an overall pleasant expression.

"Gee, Cesara, it's certainly a surprise to see _you_ up here!" Lloyd said in an aggressive and sarcastic tone.

"How'd the fight with Kayne go?" Cesara asked, still smiling.

"Oh, it went just _GREAT!_" Lloyd yelled angrily. "Except for one thing…you set us up!"

Cesara's grin immediately faded and switched to a look of shock and disbelief. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Drop the act!" Lloyd scolded.

"We now understand that you were deceiving us from the very beginning," Kratos coolly, yet sharply said.

"Those weapons you gave Kratos and I were fakes!" Lloyd yelled. "Sure, they may have _looked _powerful, but coming into contact with a _real_ sword just once would be enough to snap it in half."

"I…I…" Cesara said, scrambling to think of an excuse as to why the swords that she gave them broke so easily.

"You were trying to get us killed," Kratos deduced. "You and Kayne thought we were your biggest obstacles, so to get rid of us, you tried sending us in to battle Kayne, hoping he would render us completely defenseless since we only had fake weapons and destroy us."

"But guess what, Cesara!" Lloyd screamed. "We were one step ahead of you. Look what we got!"

Lloyd proceeded to unsheathe his material blades, leaving a look of fear on Cesara's face.

Kratos drew his sword as well and slowly walked over to Cesara. He then shoved the blade under her throat, almost happy to hear her gasp in pain as the cold metal came into contact with her.

"You're going to take us to the crystal now," Kratos said. "You're going to deactivate this weapon. Millions of innocent people need not die."

Cesara saw that Lloyd and Kratos were now completely serious and were not afraid to do her any harm at all if she refused to cooperate.

Thinking fast, Cesara pushed Kratos out of the way and made a run for the door, just barely getting out. Before either Kratos or Lloyd could realize it, she was out in the halls and running for her life.

But the two swordsmen didn't waste any time. Both of them jolted out of the room and started chasing her down the long halls of the space station.

It really wasn't much of a contest. Lloyd and Kratos were much faster than Cesara. When they had caught up with her in just a short amount of time, Cesara seemed to choke on her fear. She lost her concentration when running and slipped, slamming onto the cold metal floor beneath her.

As she plummeted to the ground, Lloyd started charging at her with all his energy. Cesara was able to roll on her back and see Lloyd charging right at her. She had just enough time to have a look of genuine and pure horror on her face.

Lloyd jumped high into the air and unsheathed both of his material blades simultaneously. As he was falling, he thrust the Vorpal Sword and the Flamberge into her, impaling her onto the floor.

As soon as he stuck the blades through her, Lloyd forced them out and sheathed them. Breathing heavily, he watched as Cesara had tears swelling up in her eyes as she stared up at Lloyd. She now longer looked full of terror, but sorrow.

Cesara let out a few last sad, soft sighs, and then her eyes closed and she lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. Lloyd didn't look like he felt any remorse, but he definitely looked like he had a few emotions swelling up within him. What those emotions were could not be deciphered.

Lloyd went over to Cesara's lifeless body and knelt down on one knee. He put his hand on her cold forehead and left it there for a few seconds. Kratos walked up from behind Lloyd.

"Is she dead?" Kratos asked in a surprisingly casual voice.

"Yeah," Lloyd said, sounding like he was choking on his own words.

"Very well then. Let's keep moving. We've yet to locate either Kayne or the crystal."

Lloyd slowly got up, not once taking his eyes off Cesara's body.

"Okay," he finally agreed.

And like nothing happened, Lloyd and Kratos were once again running through the space station, hoping to find one of the other two things they were looking for.

Luckily for Lloyd and Kratos, it didn't take them much more time. It was still frustrating having to go through the empty halls and into all the rooms to see if there was anything in there, but it wasn't long before they found one of the things they were in search of.

Lloyd and Kratos opened a giant door and they found themselves looking into a giant room. The room had a massive window just like the one where Lloyd and Kratos started in when they started scavenging the station. The window had an equally clear view of Aselia, and standing right in front of the window staring out at it was Kayne.

"Kayne!" Lloyd screamed.

"Well, well, well, look who's come back for more," Kayne said. He turned around, giving Lloyd and Kratos a full view of his spiked fire-colored hair and his dark blue military suit, coated with badges signifying his high rank.

"You're not gonna get away with this!" Lloyd yelled.

"Really?" Kayne asked. "What makes you so sure? When I first met you when I was a miserable little grunt in the Tiberian, _then_ you could have said my plan would not have worked. But after you were gracious enough to eliminate Stromm while I was aiding you, the Tiberian army gave me this rank and put me in command of this space station! I would say I _am_ getting away with it!"

"Yeah?" Lloyd yelled. "Well, Kratos and I aren't going to let you destroy Aselia!"

Kayne just laughed. "Oh, really."

Kayne turned around and hit a button on a panel. Instantly, a bright light was seen from the outside of the space station, and it seemed to be getting brighter and brighter.

"W…what's that?" Lloyd asked, starting to get very nervous.

Kayne started giving Lloyd an especially nasty look. "That would be my giant laser charging."

Kayne pointed to a digital clock that was counting down from six minutes above the large window. "Yes…" Kayne said. "In just six minutes, the laser will be fully charged, and your world will be completely obliterated!"

"No!" Lloyd screamed in horror when he saw how close Kayne was getting to destroying their world.

Down on Aselia, several thousands of people were standing outside where they could see the space station and its giant laser charging. They could tell that after a certain point, that space station would turn into a weapon that would completely destroy them.

Because of this revelation, all the people on the world were running around chaotically and in terror. While everyone was running around and screaming, one figure was standing calmly in the center of it all and never took his eyes off the space station-Yuan. (He had used his teleporter to take him to Aselia from Derris-Kharlan)

"That's the laser?" Yuan asked in complete disbelief when he saw how powerful the weapon was and that it could truly destroy their world. "Kratos, Lloyd…what the hell is taking you so long?"

Kayne was now laughing evilly as Lloyd and Kratos stared awestruck. Could they really just let Kayne win like that? No, they couldn't.

Full of frustration and fury, Lloyd drew his material blades.

"Ah. I see you have new weapons," Kayne said in a cocky way. "Did Cesara lend you those as well?"

"No," Lloyd said. "Didn't we mention? _She's dead!"_

Kayne gave them a rather cold look from this, and then drew his double pronged sword.

"So, you think you can defeat me?" Kayne asked.

Kratos drew his sword. "Kayne, we're going to make sure you're not going to destroy our world!"

"That's right!" Lloyd said. He got into his fighting stance, getting on his guard and trying to look as aggressive and as intimidating with his material blades. Kratos walked over to Lloyd and got in his fighting stance right next to him, ready to start the decisive duel with Kayne.

The seconds on the clock continued to count down.


	25. Battle to Save the World

Hello again. Just to let you guys know, today, August 29, is my last day of summer vacation. Yup. Unfortunately, it's back to reality after today for me, so updates could come a bit slower over the next few days. (or ironically, it might make me write faster) But the bottom line is, this could be the start of slower updates. Luckily, I don't think I could write a better chapter to close my summer vacation than this one. I have a feeling that this chapter will make my summer writing go out with a bang.

But I also have some other news. The other day, an idea just came to me: why not write a Kingdom Hearts story? I've been playing those games since March now, and I ended up liking them a lot. And let's face it, writing the plot to one would be very easy compared to what I've had to do to get the plots straight to other stories. (this one, for instance) I actually already have an idea for it in my mind, and it could start very soon. (as early as this weekend if I feel like making the effort) But don't worry, Tales of Symphonia is still better than Kingdom Hearts. Nothing beats ToS. You hear that, you Final Fantasy fanboys/fangirls! Nothing!

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Lloyd started off the fight by taking out his two blades and started making his way right to Kayne. Kratos followed up by getting ready to start casting a spell. But Kayne was just a little too fast for either of them.

When Lloyd swung his Flamberge at Kayne, Kayne jumped out of the way and rolled onto the ground. Pulling out his double-pronged sword, he got up as if it was no trouble at all and he started fighting back.

Realizing he wouldn't have the time to finish casting his spell, Kratos just decided to fight physically instead. Relying completely on his agility, he ran towards Kayne and started violently clashing his sword.

Now Lloyd saw Kayne was at a disadvantage. Fighting Kratos was hard enough, but if Kayne had to fight Kratos _and_ Lloyd at the same time, then Kayne would be all but finished.

But Kayne seemed ready for this. He ducked just as Lloyd swung his Vorpal Sword at his head, narrowly missing the icy blade.

But as Kayne sprung back up, Lloyd stuck out his leg and gave Kayne a solid kick in the stomach. Kayne moaned in pain as Kratos smashed Kayne's back with the handle of his sword.

Kayne was knocked onto the ground and Lloyd had the Flamberge at his throat. Lloyd was about to make the final cut and finish Kayne right then and there, but Kayne swung himself around and hit the back of Lloyd's ankles, tripping him.

As Lloyd plummeted rear-first onto the ground, Kayne shot himself up and got back on his guard.

Kayne then started taking the fight with Kratos. Both of them took their long, sharp swords and started clashing back and forth with them, sometimes hard enough to cause a spark or two.

Kayne and Kratos finally just mashed their two swords together and neither one of them backed down. Both used every ounce of strength they had to try to push their enemy's sword away. But both turned out to be strong enough that the swords remained completely neutral and evenly in between both of them.

Kratos and Kayne both started sweating heavily as they tried to push their sword into each other, but this contest was clearly not going to be decided very soon.

Lloyd got up while this was going on and tried to think of what would be the best move to make while Kratos was doing his best to hold off Kayne. Since Lloyd couldn't use magic, it was going to be hard to attack with getting in Kratos's way.

Lloyd eventually decided to just go in there and start attacking as aggressively as he could.

The entire space station filled with the sounds of metal clashing together and a few grunts. But none of the three fighters actually spoke; their facial expressions and their grunts did all the talking for them.

Finally, Lloyd and Kratos had enough. They both sprouted their wings and tried to attack Kayne from the air, giving them more maneuverability and making it harder for Kayne to hit them.

But Kayne got lucky with one hit. He smashed the side of Lloyd's head when he was coming down for an aerial swoop, but with the more blunt side of his sword.

Lloyd let out a loud moan of pain as the blow sent him flying into the wall, and he slowly slumped onto the ground, unconscious.

But Kratos wasn't willing to go down so easy. He started firing rapid fireballs at Kayne, hoping to hit him with one and be finished with him.

Kayne was able to stay fast, however. Every single time Kratos launched a fireball at him, he would jump out of the way a split second before he would have gotten hit.

Growing more and more frustrated, Kratos tried a more destructive spell: judgment.

Somehow, Kayne was able to weave his way around the spell as pillars of light started firing down at him. But he was getting worn out, which is exactly what Kratos wanted.

Meanwhile, Lloyd was slowly starting to get his senses back. He slowly opened his eyes, and for a moment, everything around him was a complete blur. He had to blink hard a few times for everything to come back into focus. When he saw that Kayne was giving Kratos a hard time, he wanted nothing more than to spring up and rush to Kratos's aid. But as he tried getting up, Lloyd still felt a throbbing pain in his head from when Kayne hit him. Lloyd had little choice but to sit back down and wait for the pain to go away. He wouldn't be able to fight his hardest if he had that pain while battling.

Meanwhile, back on Aselia, people were becoming less and less hectic and more so just panicking. They saw the laser on the space station was getting larger and more charged. In just minutes, they knew the laser would fire and wipe them all clean.

The only person in the crowd who wasn't shaking or cowering was Yuan. He wasn't afraid of getting killed (mostly because he had his teleporter in case he had to use it to escape getting destroyed), but he also had confidence in Lloyd and Kratos.

"You honestly can't think this guy's a challenge after what you did to Mithos, can you?" Yuan asked softly as he stared at the space station.

"How can you be talking to yourself at a time like this!" a frantic villager screamed when he saw Yuan saying things only he could hear himself.

Looking a little embarrassed, Yuan stuttered, "I…wasn't talking to myself."

Back on the space station, Kayne and Kratos were looking more violent than ever. Even though they were both tired, they were pushing themselves way past their limits, which only caused them to exert more energy.

Kayne did one sneaky move where he spun around and swung his leg up in the air, knocking the side of Kratos's head with his foot.

Kratos got knocked off balance with this move, and when he let his guard down for that split instant because of it, Kayne seized the moment.

Taking his double pronged sword, Kayne stuck the blade of it right through Kratos's gut.

Kratos's eyes widened, and suddenly, the entire space station became dead silent. Lloyd's eyes, as well as Kratos's, were wide open in disbelief at what just happened. The unimaginable had occurred.

Not having any strength left in him at all, Kratos fell on his knees and groaned softly. He took his hand off where he had just gotten stabbed, revealing a giant patch of blood where he had been wounded. Then, he just collapsed on the ground and stopped bleeding.

Lloyd sprung up, furious about what just happened.

"You bastard!" he screamed, louder than he ever had before. Completely ignoring the pain in his head, Lloyd sprung up, unsheathed both of his material blades, and ran into Kayne with such force he knocked him down.

Lloyd began savagely sticking his flamberge and vorpal sword into Kayne's gut and ripped them out violently and painfully. He stuck each sword in over ten times before he finally stopped.

Breathing heavily over what just happened, Lloyd looked at Kayne's dead body, lying on the ground in a puddle of blood.

After what seemed like the longest time, Lloyd ran over to Kratos and started nudging him on the shoulder.

"Kratos?" Lloyd asked, nervously. "Come on, Kratos! Wake up! Please, wake up!"

Kratos slowly groaned as he looked at Lloyd. He finally managed to choke out "The time…look at the clock…"

Lloyd realized Kratos was talking about the countdown clock that would signal when the laser would fire and destroy their world. Lloyd saw to his grave misfortune that the laser would fire in just one minute.

"Kratos, we gotta get the crystal! Without it, the station won't be able to fire the laser!"

"It's no use…" Kratos choked. "We won't…find it in time."

Kratos leaned over onto his side and pointed his sword at one of the panels on the wall. He fired a blast of magic at it, and it started causing the system to short circuit.

A computerized voice suddenly rang out, _"Station override. Electricity overload. Station to be destroyed in…ten seconds."_

"WHAT!" Lloyd screamed when he saw that Kratos had caused the entire station to go critical and get ready to explode on itself. Lloyd saw Kratos's logic: causing the station to destroy itself was the only way they'd have time to insure the laser wouldn't fire. They wouldn't have enough time to find the crystal, the laser's power source, and remove it.

Thinking fast, Lloyd ran over to Kratos and grabbed his arm. Using his free hand, Lloyd pulled out his teleporter and hit the button on it. The lights took Lloyd and Kratos out of the space station and back to Aselia.

Lloyd and Kratos appeared in the middle of the crowd, right next to Yuan. Yuan was evidently shocked to see them there. Yuan looked even more shocked to see Kratos's wound, along with the fact Kratos was no longer conscious.

"Lloyd! What happened?" Yuan asked desperately.

Yuan's attention was diverted when a loud banging sound was heard. He looked up at the space station and saw it was now nothing more than a giant fireball in the sky. The space station was gone; the laser wasn't going to destroy the world anymore. The space station was destroyed, and everything onboard along with it-including the crystal. And with the crystal, all hopes of resurrecting Anna and having a happy ending were gone.

The entire crowd let out a giant "Oooooooooh" as a sigh of relief when they saw the space station had been destroyed and wasn't a threat any longer.

Yuan and Lloyd immediately rushed Kratos to the Renegade base and laid him down on a bed in there, hoping for his recovery. Lloyd and Yuan waited outside the room.

Lloyd was tired of having to wait inside the Renegade base all that time and decided to step outside to get some air. When he got outside the base, he saw that everyone from their journey of regeneration was there. Genis, Colette, Raine, Zelos, Sheena, Regal and Presea were all standing there, with looks of sorrow, pity or sadness all written across their expressions.

"Guys…thanks for coming," Lloyd weakly said when he saw all his friends were able to make it.

"Is Kratos okay?" Colette pleaded as she wringed her hands together in fear and anxiety.

Lloyd shook his head. "No way of knowing yet. Yuan and I are still waiting for a response or something."

The group went dead silent but cast nervous looks at each other, trying to non-verbally ask, "What do you think is going to happen."

Any life at all in the group died down when Yuan walked out of the base. He had his arms crossed and his cape blew softly in the draft that he created as he walked. "Lloyd…Kratos wishes to see you."

Getting excited that there might be hope, Lloyd ran inside the base and rushed into Kratos's room. Kratos was barely conscious, but he seemed to have just enough energy left to talk to Lloyd.

"Lloyd…my son…" Kratos moaned.

"Don't force yourself to talk, Kratos!" Lloyd ordered.

"…it's too late," Kratos said lowly.

"Don't say that!" Lloyd insisted. "You're not going to die!"

Kratos looked like he tried to say something. His chest was moving up and down very quickly, and it looked like he was going through a lot of pain to get any breath in at all.

"…don't die before I do, Lloyd…my son," Kratos said.

Lloyd's eyes were open wide, but showed little emotion. Lloyd continued staring at his father in complete disbelief.

Slowly, Kratos's body started disappearing and a few sparks of light appeared around him. In no time, Kratos's entire body was almost completely invisible. Small sparkles of light came from Kratos's disappearing body and made their way into a small ball that had started hovering in front of Lloyd…Kratos's Cruxis Crystal.

Knowing there was nothing else he could do, Lloyd took the Cruxis Crystal out into the next room, where Yuan awaited him. Yuan didn't have to say a thing; Lloyd's look told the whole story.

Without saying a word, Lloyd opened up his gloved hand and dropped the Cruxis Crystal, but the crystal remained in mid-air between both of them.

"Lloyd, surely you wish Kratos to go when he's still himself?" Yuan asked, hoping for a positive response from Lloyd.

"Yeah."

"Then you know what must be done."

"Yeah."

Another long silence followed as Lloyd and Yuan continued staring at Kratos's Cruxis Crystal, which was the only thing that was keeping Kratos alive right now. Finally, Yuan spoke up.

Putting out his hand and charging a ball of energy in it, Yuan aimed it at Kratos's Cruxis Crystal and said, "Very well, then."

But Lloyd put up his hand in front of Yuan's, blocking him from firing it.

"I'll do it," Lloyd coldly said, not taking his eyes off the crystal.

Yuan looked surprised at this, but backed down. Lloyd pulled out his Flamberge and started getting ready to use it.

"Goodbye," Lloyd said. After easily eight seconds, Lloyd finished his sentence. "…Kratos."

Lloyd swung his Flamberge at the Cruxis Crystal, shattering it like it were nothing. Instantly, small balls of light started swirling around Lloyd, and they then proceeded to going into his own Cruxis Crystal. Just like that, Kratos's life, after 4,000 years, was over.

Lloyd walked outside to where everyone was standing. They were all smiling and had hopeful looks on their faces, but one look at Lloyd caused it all to fade away. Lloyd merely just shook his head at everyone as he closed his eyes and stared at the ground. And then there was silence.

Later that day, Lloyd, Yuan, and everyone who accompanied Lloyd on his journey, were standing outside Dirk's house. (Dirk was out there himself) Lloyd had built a second monument next to the one in memory of his mother, Anna. The grave next to it was meant for Kratos.

Lloyd stared down at the grave with grave depression while everyone else bowed their heads in honor. Out of all ten of them, not one said a word.

It was really bittersweet. Yes, Lloyd and Kratos had once again prevented the world from being destroyed. But this time, the price was higher than before. Now Kratos was dead, and due to the crystal being destroyed on the space station, any hopes of reviving Anna (and now Kratos) were gone forever.

One by one, people started leaving Dirk's yard and made their way home. Lloyd was standing there a while after everyone left, though. But he still did not utter a word as he stared at Kratos's grave.


	26. Recovering

Hi everyone. Yes, it definitely looks like things could go a little slower update-wise for the next couple days. Mostly because I'm still trying to adjust to my new schedule now that I'm back in school for another nine and a half months. Also, any plans for a Kingdom Hearts fanfic are pretty much off right now. A couple nights ago I was really excited about making one, but now I'm kind of just shrugging it off.

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"Well mom…and dad, I'm home," Lloyd said lowly as he walked over to the small memorial stones for both of his parents outside Dirk's house.

The weather was very clear and beautiful. It had been three days since the decisive battle on board the space station where Kayne was defeated, Cesara was found out, the plan to destroy Aselia was foiled, the crystal was destroyed, with all hopes of a happy-ever-after getting destroyed along with it. And worst of all, it was because of that battle that Kratos lost his life.

Lloyd knelt down on the soil surrounding the two tombstones. He stared at both memorials, suddenly feeling like he never knew either of his parents and that they both died before he even got a chance to know them. It felt like forever since that battle took place.

Dirk saw Lloyd standing outside and decided to walk over to him, trying to cheer him up.

"He was getting tired of livin'," Dirk said, trying to make Kratos's death as positive as possible. "He's not suffering any longer."

"I know," Lloyd said lowly. "But,…I mean…sometimes it just hits me…_he's gone_."

Lloyd closed his eyes and tilted his head forward so he would be looking at the ground if his eyes were open. He took a deep breath in and exhaled it.

Suddenly, a loud sound was heard coming from way behind them. The loud noise caused Lloyd and Dirk to both jump.

Lloyd felt his heart rate suddenly spike, and before he could even get his breath, he loudly asked, "What was that!"

"I dunno," Dirk said. "But it sounded like an explosion coming from Iselia."

"Iselia!" Lloyd said in a not very loud but very scared voice. He then turned around and bolted away from Dirk's house and threw the forest back to Iselia.

Lloyd was horrified with what he saw when he reached the village. Just like it had been when Lloyd and Genis tried to help out Marble at the Iselia ranch, the town was now on fire and getting destroyed yet again.

"What the…?" Lloyd said, trailing off at the end. He was horrified beyond words to say anything.

Houses were on fire and were collapsing, grass and plants were charred, and a large black cloud of smoke was hovering above all the buildings that weren't burned down. Luckily enough, no people seemed to be hurt or killed.

"You!" said a familiar voice from the side. "This is your fault!"

Lloyd turned to where the voice coming from. He saw a short figure who looked a bit overweight. He had gray and a bushy white mustache, along with a very sour looking face. Of course, it was the Mayor of Iselia.

"_My_ fault!" Lloyd yelled angrily and defensively. "Where the hell do you get that!"

"The people who attacked our village said they were looking for one named Lloyd. And you're the only Lloyd in this village!"

"What?" Lloyd asked. "Why would they want me?"

"It doesn't matter!" the mayor said. "You just can't help but get into trouble, can you! You already caused our village to be destroyed once before, and now that we've rebuilt it…after all the time and money we put into trying to fix our lives from your carelessness, you've gone and destroyed it again!"

"Just shut up and quit laying the blame on me for once," Lloyd sharply told the mayor. "I don't see you doing much right now to try to help things get better. And I can't think of anyone who would want to punish my by burning this village down."

"How _dare_ you!" the mayor said angrily. "This is _your_ fault this village is burning down again! I'll bet you don't even care about the lives of everyone in this village! You just go around and do whatever you feel like, and you don't even think of the consequences. You irresponsible, lazy, selfish, stupid, little…"

Before the mayor could finish the barrage of insults he was throwing at Lloyd, Lloyd balled up his fist and gave the mayor the hardest punch to the jaw that he got. As a result, the mayor got knocked onto the ground and was completely unconscious.

Without even looking at the knocked-out-cold mayor, Lloyd started running through the village, looking for whoever it was that wished to do him harm. It wasn't a long search.

"There he is!" someone said.

Lloyd turned around and saw a man with reddish-orange hair that was spiked. He was wearing a military uniform that was dark yellow in color, and he had several badges all over his uniform, so he must have been very experienced. Lloyd couldn't help but shake the feeling that he had seen that person somewhere before…

Lloyd was even more surprised when he saw the group of soldiers the man was leading. He would recognize that outfit anywhere now…they were from Tiberia.

"Tiberians!" Lloyd said when he saw all of them.

"Men!" the commander (or at least Lloyd supposed he was the commander) yelled to all the grunts behind him. "There he is! Get him!"

The Tiberian soldiers ran over to Lloyd and pulled out their razor-edged boomerangs. They all simultaneously threw theirs at Lloyd, but all Lloyd had to do was take out his material blades and block all of them.

Not having to try too hard at all, Lloyd ran over to the Tiberian grunts and gave them quick slashes with his material blades. They went down without much of a fight.

"Who's next?" Lloyd challenged as he got on his guard.

The Tiberian soldier raised his right arm, and suddenly, over thirty Tiberian soldiers started charging at Lloyd. Lloyd knew that this wave would not be so easy.

But still, he had to do his best. Lloyd cast a few quick demon fangs, which easily knocked off two or three Tiberians. Lloyd also got lucky when he ducked when a boomerang was coming right at him. Because he ducked, the boomerang kept going and it hit a Tiberian soldier behind him instead.

Lloyd didn't have time to make a smart remark after that. He stood up straight again and started swinging his sword at any enemy that was within reach of him. This was hard because it caused him to have his guard dropped for a short amount of time, so the Tiberians could easily attack him then.

And sadly for Lloyd, that's exactly what happened. When he was slaying two Tiberians who were only a few inches in front of him, a Tiberian threw a boomerang from behind and it hit Lloyd in the back of the head.

Lloyd only felt the pain for a few brief moments before he was knocked out and on the ground.

One of the Tiberians were about to finish Lloyd, but their commander stopped them.

"Don't kill him yet," the commander said. "We could get a few good things from studying him and that jewel he has in his hand."

The soldiers obediently carried Lloyd into a mysterious portal that had appeared in Iselia. As they took him into the portal, Lloyd slowly regained consciousness. He opened his eyes just in time to see the burning buildings and the ravaged town of oracles disappear in front of him.

When he regained sense of where he was, he saw that he was back in Tiberia. He was still being carried by some of the inexperienced Tiberian warriors, and their commander seemed to know full well where he wanted Lloyd to be.

The soldiers followed the commander as he led them inside the Tiberian headquarters-the same building that turned out to be part of the space station that was going to be used to destroy Aselia.

As Lloyd was led in there, he was forced into the small dungeon that Cesara was "held" in. He was thrown on the floor, and all the guards left, leaving the commander alone in the dungeon with Lloyd.

Lloyd slowly got up and the commander waited until Lloyd was fully aware of what was going on around him before he started saying anything. When Lloyd was finally back to his senses, the commander started speaking.

"So, you seem to be quite powerful," the commander said coldly as he stared at Lloyd.

"What do you want with me!" Lloyd yelled.

"What do I want? I want you to surrender that jewel in your hand to me. Studying it could prove very useful when we try another plan to destroy your world after you foiled our last one."

"You want my exsphere!" Lloyd shouted angrily. "Forget it!"

"Let me rephrase that…" the commander said in an almost gentle tone. "Surrender that exsphere, as you call it, to me. If you do, you could join our highest ranks of soldiers and become even more powerful."

"Forget it!" Lloyd yelled. "I know you're not gonna stick to that!"

"I tried to reason with you…" the commander said in a sorrowful tone. "But I guess I'm going to have to _take_ that jewel from you then."

"I don't think so!" Lloyd yelled as he drew his two material blades.

The commander pulled out a sword that looked similar to Kayne's except it didn't have the double prongs. But the blade was definitely longer and sharper than Kayne's was.

In no time, Lloyd and the commander were swinging their swords at each other. Lloyd was still kind of drowsy after being unconscious for a short period of time, which unfortunately gave the commander an advantage.

The commander was going to strike down and cut Lloyd right down the middle with his sword, but Lloyd put his two material blades in the shape of an X and was easily able to block the swing.

Lloyd used this opportunity to put his leg out and kick the commander hard in the stomach. The commander was hit onto the ground from that, and Lloyd didn't waste the opportunity.

Lloyd jumped on the table that he had jumped on when he was battling Kayne in that cell only a few days before. He then jumped off the table and pointed both of his material blades right towards the floor, ready to impale the commander and finish him.

But the commander kicked his legs into the air like a martial artist and was back on his feet without having to use his hands.

But Lloyd didn't give up there. He ran back over to the table and picked up some of the metal instruments of torture and started throwing them at the commander, hoping to hit him.

The commander had to keep dodging, but there was a point when Lloyd actually hit the commander. A pointed object used for piercing through skin and into body organs hit the commander in the wrist and lodged itself there.

The commander yelped in pain, but he grabbed the tool and pulled it out, leaving a steady trail of blood flowing down is arm and into the sleeve of his uniform. As he pulled it out, he made a small grunting noise and threw the tool onto the floor.

Soon he and Lloyd were battling again, and Lloyd was a bit more awake now, but he was still having a few problems.

Lloyd tried a different approach and tried going for the legs. The commander was able to jump over Lloyd's sword without too much trouble, but he was wounded when Lloyd took his second blade and hit him over the back of the head with it.

The commander got knocked onto the ground, and just as Lloyd was about to stick his sword through the commander and finish him, the commander took his sword and stabbed Lloyd's ribcage with it.

Lloyd moaned loudly in pain as he walked backwards. More pain was caused when the commander pulled the sword _out_ of him.

While Lloyd was still trying to recover from the stab wound, the commanded slammed the side of Lloyd's head with the end of his sword.

The blow was a direct hit and Lloyd was on the ground. The commander walked over to Lloyd and pointed the tip of his sword at Lloyd's throat.


	27. Yuan Jumps In

Lloyd took the risk of rolling out of the way while he had a sword at his throat. It worked and the commander's blade never even brushed up against him while dodging.

Lloyd sprung up and looked the commander in the eye. The commander was obviously angry that he didn't kill Lloyd while he had the opportunity. To make up for this, he started savagely attacking the moment Lloyd was on his feet.

Lloyd had to rely heavily on both of his material blades in order to keep himself alive and out of harm's way from the commander's heavy swings. Lloyd started ducking very quickly in order to keep himself safe, but he knew that wouldn't be too helpful after he got tired.

The commander seemed to be getting a bit more tired as well as the two continued clashing blades and doing their best to finish the other. But both seemed equal in strength and capability, and it looked like the fight would never end.

Lloyd jumped back after a few swings so the two of them were now several feet apart. He then started casting a series of Demon Fangs at the commander.

The commander saw all the attacks coming right for him, but he seemed to dodge them without too much trouble. He jumped over all the waves Lloyd's attack created as he started getting closer and closer to Lloyd. After the commander made the last jump, he was only inches from Lloyd.

Lloyd got both of his material blades in a fighting position again as the commander pulled out his sword. Both of them immediately started clashing their swords once again, but this time, much more violent and much faster. If either one of them let their guard down for a split second, it would definitely mean instant death.

Finally, Lloyd just came to a realization. _"This is stupid,"_ he thought to himself as he was fighting. Lloyd tried to make one quick kick to the commander's stomach and succeeded.

The commander fell on the ground, but he was up in a moment. But knocking the commander onto the ground and finishing him wasn't Lloyd's objective. Instead, Lloyd used that small bit of extra time to reach into his red shirt and pull out the teleporter. Lloyd mashed the button on his teleporter, and the bright lights sent him away.

The commander stared in awe, confusion and rage when he saw that Lloyd had gotten away. "What the…" he managed to choke out.

Meanwhile, Lloyd saw all the bright lights cascading around him as he felt like he was riding through an invisible roller coaster. When the lights finally cleared and he slowly felt like he was no longer moving, he once again found himself in the dark realm of Derris-Kharlan.

Lloyd knew the way well enough by now after being teleported there numerous times over the course of his new journey. He was looking for Yuan.

Lloyd started making his way down the long rock paths of Derris-Kharlan. This time, he wasn't disturbed in the slightest by how lifeless and how empty the entire place was. With Kratos gone, the new invasion in Iselia and the thought that maybe the journey wasn't over after all, Lloyd had more important things to worry about.

After running the fairly long distance, Lloyd finally found Yuan in his usual spot. Yuan almost seemed to be expecting Lloyd, because he was already facing in Lloyd's direction with his arms crossed, patiently waiting for something to happen.

"Lloyd? What are you doing here?" Yuan calmly, yet assertively asked.

Lloyd took a moment to catch his breath. After bending down and supporting himself by clasping on to his kneecaps, he looked up to answer Yuan's question.

"Well, earlier today I was down on Iselia, and the next thing I know, the entire place is attacked."

"Attacked?"

"Yeah. Some guy in the Tiberian army came down with a bunch of his soldiers and destroyed Iselia all over again. When I tried fighting them off, they captured me and brought me to Tiberia.

"How?" Yuan asked, now confused. "I didn't think the portal was accessible during the daytime."

"It's not," Lloyd confirmed. "But they had some sorta device, I guess. They used it to bring me to Tiberia."

Yuan let a small "hmmmmm" escape from his sealed lips. He looked at Lloyd and said, "Lloyd, take me to Iselia and show me this device that they used."

Lloyd took out his teleporter and had it warp them to Iselia. When the lights cleared, the two were back in Lloyd's home village. Even Yuan seemed shocked at the destruction and the devastation that the Tiberian soldiers did to the town.

Yuan let out a small grunt and turned his attention back to Lloyd. "Show me their way of getting here."

Lloyd led Yuan to the device that he had to go through once the Tiberians captured him. Yuan investigated it for a while before he looked at Lloyd. "Well then, let's go."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Lloyd asked.

"You're going to Tiberia to find out what's going on here," Yuan answered. "And I'm coming with you."

"Are you sure?" Lloyd asked. He thought the Tiberians would prove to be a real challenge even to a fighter of Yuan's magnitude. Seriously, look what they did to Kratos…

"Don't question me. Now go!" Yuan ordered.

Not even saying anything back, Lloyd ran into the giant device and Yuan followed. In a quick flash, they were both on Tiberia once again.

"How convenient," Yuan commented. "That'll be useful whenever we want to make a quick strike."

Lloyd didn't know what else to say. He looked in front of him, and sure enough, there was the giant building that served as the headquarters right in front of them. And once again, Lloyd noticed the amazingly high tower that was off far in the distance. He still had no idea what the very tall, very thin building was used for.

"Lloyd, is this their stronghold?" Yuan asked as he looked at the giant building in front of them.

"Yeah. This is their headquarters," Lloyd answered.

"I see. Then it looks like we're going to have to completely destroy this place," Yuan softly said. "Lloyd, what do you say about going in there now and making a mess of this place?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Lloyd said, ready for this nightmare to be over.

Yuan and Lloyd went over to the giant door that stood between them and the entrance to the headquarters. Lloyd tried opening the door, but it was locked.

"Err…" Lloyd grumbled. "I guess they locked it after they took me in so I wouldn't escape."

"Well, try to break it down then!" Yuan ordered.

Lloyd gave Yuan a bit of a dirty look for acting like an aggressive leader, but decided he had little choice. He took out both of his material blades and started slashing at the door with them.

The blades gave a high-decibel clashing sound every single time they swords came into contact with it. He tried striking the door over and over, but with little success. Lloyd even tried some of his stronger moves on it, but the door still didn't show any sign of weakening.

"It won't open," Lloyd said as he looked at Yuan.

Yuan scoffed and walked over to the door. "Move aside, Lloyd. I should have known to never send a kid to do a man's job."

"Excuse me?" Lloyd asked harshly, slightly offended.

Yuan didn't answer. He pulled out his giant sword and started swinging it full force at the massive door in front of him. He bashed it over and over, but he didn't have much luck either.

Yuan grumbled, but still persisted. He repeatedly struck the door with his mighty sword, but nothing happened.

Now Yuan was becoming stubborn. Even though he was clearly getting annoyed, he still tried his best to smash the door down. Lloyd started laughing to himself when he saw how angry Yuan was getting that the door wouldn't break down, despite how hard it was being hit. Lloyd thought it was pretty hilarious.

After Yuan had hit the door easily over thirty times with no success, he was panting heavily and looked very angry.

"What's the matter, Yuan?" Lloyd remarked. "Not manly enough to do a man's job?"

Yuan looked at Lloyd with an annoyed expression, but realized that the matter at hand was too important to be getting angry with Lloyd over.

"This door doesn't look like it's coming down," Yuan remarked. "Very well, then. Lloyd, we're going to have to make a giant weapon."

"Wait…what?" Lloyd asked.

"A giant weapon," Yuan answered. "We need to construct a weapon with enough force to blast this door down."

"Uh…okay," Lloyd said, not sure how Yuan planned on making a giant weapon. "Is there anything you want me to do?"

"Yes," Yuan precisely answered, almost like he was expecting Lloyd to ask that question. "I want you to find all your former companions from the journey of regeneration and gather them. They'll help us put the weapon together."

"Uh…okay," Lloyd said. "Wait a minute! What are _you_ going to do?"

"I'm going to Derris-Kharlan to work on the design," Yuan calmly answered.

Before Lloyd could say a word, Yuan pulled out his teleporter and warped back to Derris-Kharlan. Lloyd could only stand there, not knowing what the heck he was supposed to do now.

"I…guess I should start rounding everyone up," Lloyd said to himself.

Just as he was about to pull out his teleporter and warp himself back to Iselia where he would start looking for everyone, a voice called out, "there he is!"

Lloyd turned around and he saw the giant door to the headquarters was open. Several Tiberian soldiers were standing there with their sharp boomerangs ready to go.

Lloyd pulled out his material blades and got ready to fight, but before he even started running close to them, one of the Tiberians threw their boomerang at Lloyd and hit him in the leg, knocking him to the ground.

As Lloyd fell to the ground, he looked up and expected to be finished by the Tiberians. But instead, they all parted and created an aisle, and the commander Lloyd had just finished fighting against was walking down the aisle.

"Ah, I see that was short lived," the commander said with a nasty look on his face. "I think it's time you gave up."

The commander beckoned for two of his soldiers to come over to him. The soldiers knew what to do immediately. They each grabbed one of Lloyd's arms and started dragging him into the headquarters.

"Where do we put him, sir?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Throw him in the dungeon," the commander calmly ordered.

Without hesitation, the two soldiers threw Lloyd down the long, solid flight of stairs into the dungeon, trying to cause him the most amount of pain possible.

Once Lloyd landed in the dungeon, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. He looked up and saw that the Tiberian commander was walking right towards him. He put his hands on his hips and looked at Lloyd with a sick glare.

"Ha! You thought you got away. And you decided to come back here, anyway? Hmmmm…I don't see the logic in that, but it doesn't matter, because we have you now."

Lloyd tried getting up, but the moment he was pushing himself up, the Tiberian commander slugged him in the side of the head and knocked him back on the ground.

Lloyd moaned in pain as he slowly started trying to move, but ever single time he tried, the commander would just knock him on the side of the head again. Lloyd decided it would be smarted just to stay on the ground.

"There's a good boy," the Tiberian commander remarked when he saw that Lloyd wasn't going to try to fight or get up anymore. He turned his attention to a guard who was standing at the top of the staircase. "Inform everyone that we have a prisoner!" the commander ordered to the inexperienced soldier.

"Yes, Commander Zyn," the soldier obediently said as he ran off.

Zyn looked at the guard as he ran off, and then he turned his gaze back to Lloyd.


	28. Together Again

Lloyd was obviously scared about what was going on. Of course, being trapped in an enemy base was nothing new to him, but this time, the one person who he was sure could have saved him was dead, and no one else knew he was there. He was just about good as done.

Zyn looked at Lloyd with a devilish snare as he paced back and forth through the dungeon, not once taking his eyes off Lloyd. Lloyd, in an attempt not to look scared or chicken out, didn't take his eyes off Zyn, either.

"So, you're Lloyd Irving," Zyn said. "Kayne told me a lot about you. He said you helped him get the crystal to destroy your world."

"Yeah," Lloyd bitterly replied. "Did he mention that I also killed him and ruined your plans?"

Zyn just chuckled a little. "He thought he was all big and strong, but really, he didn't have much in him at all. Sure, he was in a higher rank than a lot of soldiers, but compared to me? I don't think so."

"Quit bragging and just do whatever you want," Lloyd challenged. "There's nothing you can do now except rebuild that weapon from scratch, and we'll have our eyes on you this time!"

Zyn emitted a small laugh again, but then he turned towards Lloyd. He almost looked sympathetic when he looked at the young swordsman in front of him.

"You know, I was given orders to torture you and to make you suffer a long time for thwarting our long-awaited and very expensive plan," Zyn said as he gave Lloyd an unpleasant look.

"Uh-huh," Lloyd said, doing his best not to look scared. "And?..."

"I really don't want to," Zyn said sympathetically. Lloyd was now getting very confused with what Zyn was talking about. Why was he sounding so concerned? "But what's an order is an order, y'know?"

Saying this, Zyn reached into his suit and pulled out a small device. The handle had a metal end to it, and after flipping a small switch on the under side of the device, it made the metal ends turn bright orange-no doubt it was making the handle hundreds of degrees.

"I hope you can take the heat, kid," Zyn said as he got ready to press the hot metal onto Lloyd's arm.

"I hope you can take a prisoner getting away!" Lloyd shot back. He reached into his red shirt and pulled out his teleporter. He pressed the button and, in just a moment, he was gone. He left Zyn looking very confused and annoyed.

Meanwhile, Lloyd found himself once again on Derris-Kharlan. He looked around for a long time. (actually, he wasn't really "looking"; he was walking towards a certain spot he had been to many times in the past several days)

Lloyd finally found Yuan, and Yuan looked fairly surprised to see him there.

"Can you go two minutes without getting captured?" Yuan asked. "You're worse than princesses in fairy tales when it comes to being kidnapped."

"And you're worse than anyone else when it comes to saying something original," Lloyd said as he called upon his teenage wit to snap back. It brought back awkward memories of when he and Yuan first met.

Yuan growled at Lloyd's remark, but decided against taking the discussion any further. "Are you ready to get to work on that weapon now?" he asked.

"Uh…I guess," Lloyd said, pretending to be scratching the back of his neck. "Are you sure you want to actually go ahead and make this weapon? I mean, think of all the innocent Tiberians who will get killed if something goes wrong and our weapon goes off early."

"Lloyd, have you forgotten what those Tiberians have done?" Yuan asked. "Have you forgotten what they did to Kratos? They killed him!"

Lloyd closed his eyes, but still maintained a serious appearance. He looked down towards the floor and shook his head.

"…no," Lloyd finally said. He opened his eyes and looked back up at Yuan.

Yuan looked at Lloyd, not sure what he was trying to say.

"The Tiberians didn't kill dad," Lloyd said, still refusing to make eye contact with Yuan. "Kayne did. And I know that not all Tiberians are like him. When Kratos and I went there for the first time, Kratos and I saw the civilians in that world, and they were no different from the people here."

"What are you trying to get at?" Yuan asked.

"This entire time, I always thought Tiberians in general were our enemies," Lloyd said. "But I was wrong; it's only the people high in their military ranks who are our enemies, not the innocent people who have no part in it."

Yuan still wasn't sure what Lloyd was trying to say.

"I don't hate Tiberians like you may have thought," Lloyd said, finally looking up and staring Yuan in the eye. "I only hate what their military has done and what they hope to do next. The one responsible for Kratos's death is gone, so I have nothing else to hold against them."

"Hmmmmm," Yuan murmured to himself. "Personally, I'd have rather listened to your speeches about everyone having the right to live once they're born, but I guess you have a point."

Lloyd didn't say anything. He was about to, but Yuan spoke up first. "Well, you realize we still need to gather everyone up to construct that weapon, right? It doesn't matter how innocent those civilians are. If the military on that world is still active, we still need to be one step ahead of them."

"I know," Lloyd said. "And I'm ready. Let's go get the guys."

Lloyd and Yuan took out their teleporters and used them to be warped to Iselia. From there, they looked around for Genis and Raine.

After finding the two half-elves in their homes, Lloyd and Yuan explained the crisis that was currently going on and said they needed their help. Without even thinking about their own lives, Genis and Raine were more than happy to help out Yuan and Lloyd. (especially since saving the world was part of the deal)

After Raine and Genis agreed to come along, the now-quartet started making their way over to Meltokio. There, they found Zelos (as always) hanging around with a bunch of girls and gloating about himself.

Once the four of them spoke to the former Tethe'alla Chosen, Zelos was all too willing to go along for one more adventure and to do something to save the world. As they started heading out of Meltokio with all the girls screaming at Zelos and wishing him luck, Lloyd started casting uncomfortable looks at him.

"What is it?" Zelos asked after he got creeped out enough by Lloyd's glare.

"Zelos…can I…" Lloyd started.

Zelos started laughing but looked annoyed at the same time. "Come on, Lloyd. This isn't the Hall of the Great Seed in case you forgot. The answer this time is definitely YES!"

Lloyd seemed comfortable enough now, and they were all off once again.

"BYE MASTER ZELOOSSSS!" the girls screamed when Zelos was out of sight.

The next stop was to Mizuho. The group walked in on Sheena when she was still training to take over as successor to Mizuho, but she was delighted to see her friends.

Once they all started explaining the details, she joined up with them without a word. (Of course, she asked Tiga if it would be okay first)

After getting Sheena, they all headed over to Altamira and headed towards Regal's office building. George immediately let them in and they were allowed to talk to Regal about the current situation.

Regal showed no signs of hesitation once the offer was given to him about helping them save the world again. He sided with Lloyd and his allies as soon as they mentioned the world was at stake again.

Standing right outside on the roof of the building was Presea, staring at her sister's grave stone and still talking to Alicia as if she were alive. Of course, she didn't have any trouble going along with them either.

The last one to recruit was Colette, who was back in Iselia where Genis and Raine had been found. They headed to Colette's house and found her, and she greeted them very warmly.

They told her about what they were planning, and not surprisingly, she was a bit reluctant at first. She hated the idea of constructing a weapon that would no doubt be capable of hurting several innocent people, until Yuan said that the weapon wouldn't be intended to kill.

Colette finally agreed after a little bit more persuading, and she was ready to help out once again as well. Now that everyone was once again assembled, they were back to Derris-Kharlan to discuss their plans.

"All right," Yuan said. "Since I last saw Lloyd before he got captured _again_ by those Tiberians, I began working on plans to outlining the weapon we're going to construct."

Yuan took out a long piece of rolled up paper and laid it down on the sold rock floor of Derris-Kharlan. All of Lloyd's former allies carefully studied the picture and wondered what the heck it was that Yuan had in mind for it.

The weapon itself looked like a giant cannon. It could be wheeled around and it had one very long barrel, but it also had an ejector button on it, so the cannon could instantly function as a ram if needed.

"Everyone got a good look at it?" Yuan asked. For a reply he got a chorus of "yeah's" and "mhm's". "Good, now pay attention. I'm about to give all of you your jobs."

The blue haired Seraphim turned to Genis. "Genis, I want you and Sheena to help supply the mana that will power this weapon."

"Roger!" Genis exclaimed all too excitedly.

Yuan turned his attention back to Regal. "Regal-you, Presea and Colette are going to help move all the parts of the weapon and bring them to where we're going to construct it."

"Hold on a minute," Zelos said. "How's a sweet little angel like Colette going to carry those giant slabs of wood and all that other good stuff?"

"Zelos, don't you remember that time in the woods behind Mizuho?" Lloyd asked, starting to smile. "Where we first fought Regal and Colette humiliated you by having the strength to pick him up with one hand while you couldn't even drag him?"

Zelos didn't say anything. Instead, he just turned back to Yuan and said, "Speaking of which, where are we going to get all this wood, anyway?"

"That's where you come in," Yuan said as he answered Zelos's question. "I want you to speak with the king of Tethe'alla and have him ship all the necessary materials we're going to need to build it."

"No problem," Zelos very casually, yet confidently said.

"All right then, it's settled," Yuan said. "That just about takes care of everyone."

"Hold on a minute!" Genis outburst. "What about Lloyd?"

Lloyd suddenly realized that Yuan hadn't given him a job to do in constructing the weapon. "Yeah, what about me?"

"Lloyd, you and I are going to be supervising this operation," Yuan calmly answered.

"Supervise?"

"Yes, unless you think you're too much of a wimp to do the simplest job of all and would rather sit back and watch."

"Who are you calling a wimp?" Lloyd angrily yelled.

"Look, we need a few supervisors," Yuan said. "And I don't think I'll be able to keep a close enough watch on everyone at once. So, are you willing to work as a co-supervisor?"

"You bet!" Lloyd excitedly yelled, now bursting with energy.

Genis just scoffed and shook his head as he turned towards Raine. "I'll bet you fifty gald in thirty minutes he won't have that excitement anymore."

"So, where are we going to work on this?" Lloyd asked. "We can't bring all the materials here to Derris-Kharlan."

"Very good, Lloyd," Yuan said, almost sounding like he was praising Lloyd. "We're going to be working right outside Iselia. That way, we'll be in a place that's hard to get to unless you go through Iselia. And surely someone in Isleia would notice if someone tried to break in, right?"

"Uh…I guess," Lloyd said, not sure what else to say.

Yuan started looking right at everyone who was going to help them create this weapon that would help them save the world again: Lloyd, Genis, Colette, Raine, Sheena, Zelos, Presea and Regal.

"All right," Yuan said. "Let's get this project rolling."


	29. The Last Invasion

"Regal! Try to get that wood over here faster, would ya!" Yuan scolded as Regal seemed to take his sweet time bringing over a heavy log that they were going to use for constructing the superweapon that Yuan had planned.

"Yuan, do you have to be so aggressive?" Lloyd asked. "I'm sure he's doing his best."

Yuan smirked at that remark as he continued ordering everyone around. Despite the fact that he had given the title to Lloyd of "co-supervisor", Yuan seemed to be the one directing everyone the most about what it was that needed to be done. Lloyd pretty much sat back and watched and didn't do a bit of work. That was the way he liked it.

The hours wore on. There were several mishaps along the way, such as Colette deciding to become clumsy at the least appropriate times, (at one point she tripped over a rope that was holding up a part of the weapon and the entire thing came down and needed to be rebuilt), Zelos complaining that the work was too hard and that someone as handsome as him shouldn't have to go through that kind of work, and several other things that overall slowed the production rate.

"Come on, move it!" Yuan continued screaming as everyone did their best to construct the weapon that he had blueprinted. "This weapon isn't going to build itself, you know! We need to finish this weapon as quickly as we can so we can blow open that door to the headquarters!"

"But Yuan," Zelos whined, "this work is too hard! I'm sweating up a storm! Ya know, losing all my strength isn't going to be too helpful when we're in a fight, you know."

"Kratos is not here, so allow me to speak for him," Yuan calmly said. "Every drop of sweat in training is one less drop of blood in battle. Now get back to work and keep sweating!"

With a moan, Zelos walked back, and Lloyd was becoming equally concerned that Yuan may have been overworking all of them. But he didn't talk to Yuan about it, because he knew Yuan wouldn't listen anyway.

Several hours later, the weapon was finally finished. The weapon part of it looked like a long cannon that was capable of firing a devastating blast of mana that had the potential to kill staggering amounts of people at once. It was being carried on two thick and heavy strips of wood that had wheels on the bottom for easy maneuvering. On the sides of the weapon there were two buttons, one on each side. Yuan explained the button was to only be hit an emergency. When pressed, the button would eject the cannon like a giant battering ram.

"Nice work, everyone," Yuan said, saying the first half-decent thing to anyone ever since they started working on the weapon. "We should all find an inn for the night now and get some rest. Tomorrow promises to be a big and decisive day."

"Why don't we go to that inn that was built in Iselia?" Lloyd asked. "I don't think Zyn destroyed it when he led an attack there a little while ago."

"All right," Yuan said without asking anyone else's opinions. "Let's get to Iselia now."

The band of comrades made their way into the small town that Lloyd grew up in. They all went into the inn and were given their beds for the night. All of them got to sleep very easily, except for Lloyd. He was too busy thinking about the operation that was going to be completed tomorrow and how it held the fate of the entire world in his hands.

Lloyd was nowhere near drifting off to sleep when a loud clash a sudden storm of footsteps was heard outside. He shot up out of his bed and went over to a window and looked out it, horrified with what he saw.

There were several troops that were wearing dark blue coats and all seemed fairly new to the military. But when one pulled out a boomerang, there was no doubt in Lloyd's mind that the invaders were Tiberians.

"Dammit!" Lloyd yelled when he realized who Iselia's unwanted visitors are. "Don't those guys ever give up!"

Lloyd went over to all his allies and very loudly started waking them up. When he told them that Tiberians were marching into Iselia, they all got out of bed without a word and got ready to fight.

When all of them stormed out of the inn, they turned a corner only to be facing Zyn and his troops.

"Heh. I see you brought your friends with you this time," Zyn commented to Lloyd.

"This time, you're not going to get away!" Lloyd threatened as he pulled out his material blades.

"Lloyd, how many times must I tell you?" Zyn asked in a sympathetic tone. "I don't want to hurt you, I just want you to come with me so you don't have to put yourself through this any longer."

"Quit acting like you care!" Lloyd yelled as he put his material blades into an attack position.

The caring look on Zyn's face dropped, and his dark yellow suit seemed to start wrinkling on its own. "Have it your way," he said coldly. "Men, attack!"

The squad of Tiberian soldiers that Zyn brought with him pulled out their weapons and started charging at Lloyd and the gang.

Instantly, a brawl was going on in Iselia during the pitch black night. Yuan had pulled out his giant sword as was savagely swinging it at anyone who got close to him. Regal was kicking the tar out of anyone who tried to do harm to him or any of his allies, Collete and Genis tried their best to cast the best magic without hurting any of their allies, while Zelos and Presea started swinging their weapons around like crazy. Sheena didn't have a lot of time to summon a summon spirit, so she had to make do with her cards. Raine was just standing on the side and trying her best to heal anyone who she thought got hurt.

Lloyd tried fighting off several Tiberians, but he soon saw he was outnumbered. Plus, he didn't think he should be fighting his hardest against the Tiberian soldiers; instead, he tried focusing all his attention on a more deadly opponent.

Lloyd ran over to Zyn and got his Vorpal Sword ready to strike him down, but Zyn pulled out his long and fairly damaging sword and blocked Lloyd's slash.

Now Zyn and Lloyd were fighting their decisive battle. If Lloyd won, then it would do considerable damage to Zyn's side; if Zyn won, then it would seriously hinder Lloyd's group. The scariest part was that both of them realized that.

Lloyd took his Flamberge and swung it right at Zyn's head, and Zyn ducked, but not without feeling the hot air created by the sword swoop past his head.

Zyn stuck out his long sword and tried stabbing Lloyd directly in the stomach with it. Lloyd had to make frequent dodges to his left and to his right to avoid getting killed.

Lloyd finally got the upper hand when he tried sliding into Zyn's shin, like a desperate baseball player trying to steal to another base. The plan worked and Zyn fell to the ground, his sword falling at his side.

Lloyd got up as quickly as he could and got ready to drive his material blades through Zyn and finish him, but Zyn was able to roll out of the way just in time. He picked up his giant sword when he was back on his two feet and started charging at Lloyd again.

Lloyd started running as quickly as he could over to a tree. Just as Zyn was swinging his sword at him, Lloyd ducked, causing Zyn's sword to completely miss him and lodge itself in a tree.

While Zyn struggled to release his sword from being lodged in the tree, Lloyd ran over and gave Zyn a hard kick in the side, knocking him onto the ground. But since he had kept a strong grip on his sword the whole, getting knocked onto the ground actually allowed Zyn to have his sword pulled out from the tree.

With Zyn armed again, Lloyd had to be extra careful. Letting his guard down for a split second could possibly be the decisive moment in the battle and indirectly cost him and his friends the battle to save Aselia.

The battle went on for a long time as Lloyd and Zyn did nothing except clash blades over and over, doing their best to knock the other off their guard.

Lloyd ran over to the same tree that Zyn had accidentally got his sword stuck in and sheathed his Vorpal Sword. He then grabbed onto a branch a few inches above his head and pulled himself up with his free hand. He started dangling from the tree like a little kid trying to hold on without falling, and he started swinging himself forward.

Doing so, he kicked Zyn in the face while he was swinging and knocked Zyn backwards. Lloyd let go of the tree when momentum was pushing him forward and he started flying towards Zyn as gravity pulled him downwards. Lloyd prepared the last bit of his planned attack by pointing his flamberge right for Zyn's heart.

But Zyn stuck his sword up to block Lloyd's causing Lloyd's sword to stop in motion while Lloyd continued getting pushed forward by momentum. The result: his abdomen got pushed right into the handle of his sword.

Feeling like the impact had punctured part of his upper body, Lloyd crumpled onto the ground as Zyn started walking towards him with his sword in position, ready to strike.

Just as Zyn was about to thrust the sword through Lloyd and kill him, Zyn was caught off guard when a giant fireball came charging at his head. It hit him in his temple, stunning him for a moment that Lloyd desperately needed.

Lloyd looked at where the fireball came from and saw Genis was standing there, holding his Kendama rather proudly. Lloyd just nodded quickly to Genis, hoping that would serve as a satisfactory "thank you".

With Lloyd slowly starting to recover from an unintentional self-inflicted injury he had given himself, he started charging towards Zyn, who was still on the ground after being knocked there by Genis's surprise fireball attack.

But Lloyd's attack and finishing blow was cut short when he was hit over the back of his head with something heavy. He turned around and saw a Tiberian soldier catch the boomerang in his hand that he had just thrown at Lloyd's head. Lloyd made quick work of the soldier by giving him a quick, but painful, stab into his stomach.

While it cost the Tiberian soldier his life, throwing the boomerang at Lloyd's head saved Zyn's. Zyn was now back on his feet and ready to attack again, but Lloyd was furious now. He released the inner animal within him and started lashing out at Zyn. He didn't use any self-taught fighting techniques or any strategy; he just started attacking as savagely as possible.

This sudden burst in aggression apparently caught Zyn off guard, because he actually let out a small gasping sound as Lloyd started attacking. Finally, he received one hard blow to his wrist, causing a large amount of blood to start pouring out from it.

Zyn moaned in pain as he fell on to the ground. Lloyd was about to impale Zyn into the ground before a hand came up from behind and held him back.

"Lloyd, that's enough!" said a voice. It was Yuan.

Lloyd tried his best to break his hand free from Yuan's hard grasp, but it didn't work. Finally, Lloyd started calming down. With his heavy breathing, he finally became aware of what was going on around him. He looked down at Zyn, who was obviously beat in front of him.

"Lloyd, answer this question," Yuan said calmly. All of Lloyd's friends came up from behind, and Lloyd turned towards them. He was surprised to see that in just the time he and Zyn had been dueling, his friends had taken out all the other Tiberian soldiers.

"Lloyd, do you honestly want to kill him?" Yuan asked.

Lloyd looked around at all his friends and tried to read their expressions. They all seemed concerned about how violent he had just become, and Lloyd took in a deep breath. He saw that Zyn was obviously scared and wasn't ready to die.

Lloyd took one more deep breath in and closed his eyes. He then sorrowfully turned to his allies and said to them, "Guys, I think we got ourselves a prisoner."


	30. Tiberia's Views

After all Tiberians had either been killed, surrendered or were forced to retreat, Lloyd and his group took back their leader, Zyn, to hold him as a hostage and to hopefully find out anything useful. Anything would work as long as it would give them an edge.

Zyn was taken back to the place where Lloyd and his friends were spending the night. His weapons were taken from him and they made it very clear to him that he would get a painful stab wound to a non-lethal spot if he tried anything suspicious.

Zyn was thrown in the corner of the small room with everybody giving him a hostile expression. He had to breathe deeply and try to come to his senses before the group could question him about anything.

"Kill me if you'd like," Zyn coldly said, a few patches of blood appearing on his dark mustard colored uniform. "It's not going to stop Tiberia from destroying your world."

"That's exactly what we want to talk about!" Lloyd insisted. "We wanted to know why you want to destroy our world when we haven't done a thing to you!"

"What are you talking about?" Zyn said, starting to wake up a little.

"Your army was trying to destroy Aselia!" Lloyd recalled. "You sent a bunch of troops down here to try to retrieve that crystal so you could power up that giant space weapon and completely annihilate us."

"It was out of defense," Zyn calmly said.

"Defense?" Lloyd asked, a strong hint of confusion making its way into his voice patterns. "What was there to defend yourself from?"

"Don't play dumb," Zyn said. "You and your military wanted to obliterate our world. You can't deny that."

"Where did you get that from?" Yuan asked, stepping in. "This world has no ties to Tiberia."

"Of course it does!" Zyn yelled. "You wanted to destroy us!"

"Look, I don't know where you're getting this from, but whatever it is, it's a bunch of garbage," Lloyd scolded. "None of us have ever heard of Tiberia, right guys?"

Lloyd turned around to his comrades and received a chorus of "Yeah"'s, "That's rights"'s, and several other phrases to represent an agreement.

"You all cannot be serious," Zyn said, shocked at the group's ignorance of Tiberia.

"None of us even knew it existed before you guys showed up," Genis said in an understanding tone to the Tiberian commander.

"But…that's not…" Zyn stuttered. "You must be joking."

" 'fraid not," Lloyd casually said, never once taking his eyes off Zyn.

A long silence followed. The group was completely confused about what was going on. They knew that their world had no ties to Tiberia before they invaded, and Zyn was sure that their world was going to be destroyed unless they did something about it and attacked Aselia.

"Obviously, there's been a miscommunication," Raine said, crossing her arms.

"Hmmm…no ties to Tiberia," Yuan said. He meant to be thinking to himself, but in reality, he was talking out loud. "That's definitely true. Unless Tiberia is…"

Lloyd turned around and stared at Yuan with fascination. "Did you say something?"

Yuan grunted. "It's nothing. Let's keep hearing Zyn's side of the story."

"Our army received information that your world was going to destroy ours!" Zyn yelled in an aggressive way at the people taking him hostage. "We had to come down here, retrieve the crystal and destroy you; it was the only way to insure our own world wouldn't be destroyed."

Lloyd pulled out his sword, staring at the man he considered to be responsible for this entire situation from the very beginning. "You're a commander, and you told everyone you thought we were going to destroy you!"

"Lloyd, put the sword away," Yuan calmly ordered.

"But…"

"Put it away!"

Scowling, Lloyd sheathed his Flamberge and went back to staring at Zyn. He crossed his arms and waited for somebody to say something.

"You're absolutely positive you heard that our world wanted to destroy yours?" Raine asked. "None of us even knew a world called Tiberia existed until your army intruded."

"But this cannot be true!" Zyn yelled. "I don't trust you people! I want to ask some civilians if they've ever heard of Tiberia!"

The entire group escorted Zyn out of the inn and followed him to wherever he was going. There were still a few people out on the streets at night, and Zyn asked each and every single one of them if they had ever heard of Tiberia or if their world had any intention on destroying it. And the look was completely the same from all of them: confused and annoyed.

Zyn was led back to the room at the inn where they were staying the night. He had a look of disbelief written all over him.

"So, think we're a bunch of chumps now?" Zelos asked in a cocky tone while giving Zyn an unpleasant glare.

"I…I don't understand," Zyn said, looking at the floor. His facial expressions appeared to be a mixture of anger, confusion, and maybe even a little bit of disappointment. "But…I was told…"

"Zyn," Lloyd said with a sad expression, "We're not horrible people here. We wouldn't go around trying to destroy a world for no reason at all."

"Surely you've figured it out by now?" Raine asked in an equally depressing voice. "Our world was doing nothing to try to hurt you."

Zyn looked like he had a thousand thoughts rummaging through his mind at that moment. His blue eyes met the floor, not knowing where else to turn. After a long time, he looked up.

"This may seem a bit shallow, but I have a request," he pleaded as he looked at the people who were taking him captive.

Yuan scoffed. "You honestly think we should grant your request after you just led an attack on us in hopes of killing us?"

"I know it's selfish," Zyn said, "and for that, I apologize. But I need to get back to Tiberia. I am convinced that the knowledge we were given was incorrect."

"And what do you honestly hope to do there?" Yuan asked, suspicious.

"I'm going to report to my leader that we were wrong about you guys being the enemies," Zyn explained.

"Your leader?" Lloyd asked. "You mean you're not the one in command of the Tiberian army?"

"Me?" Zyn asked. He started laughing, which is the first time the group ever saw him do it. "Please. Do I honestly look like a leader of an army?"

Lloyd started to say something, but Yuan cut him off. "Very well. We'll take you to Tiberia."

A smile spread across Zyn's face. "Thank you so much! Are you going to use those devices that I've seen you use before to escape?"

"You mean these?" Lloyd asked as he pulled his teleporter out of his pocket.

"That's it!" Zyn said, starting to get slightly excited. "Can those take us to Tiberia?"

"Yeah," Lloyd said.

Lloyd didn't waste a moment from there. Hitting the button on his teleporter, a bright blend of white lights began cascading around the new group of ten.

After the lights cleared, the group once again found themselves in Tiberia. The world looked exactly the way Lloyd remembered it, but for everyone else in their party (with the exception of Zyn) was experiencing it for the very first time.

The group began staring at the works of architecture and buildings and eyed them very carefully and admirably. (except for Raine-she stopped every couple of steps to really study the houses, the roads, even the rocks and see how much Tiberia differed from their own world)

Zyn led the group through the long streets. Several Tiberian civilians stared at the group like they were aliens (when they actually weren't too different from) and didn't say a word. They did, however, seem to take a bit more kindly to everyone once Zyn passed them a glance that appeared to say, "Don't worry, they're not going to hurt you."

"Wow, Tiberia isn't much different from our own home!" Genis blurted out during the walk.

"Yes," Regal said sternly. "It would appear as though these people are very similar to us."

"Just because they are from another world doesn't mean they are completely different from us," Presea sadly said. "Those that come from other worlds do have feelings, just like all of us here. They are no different than us except for the world they live in."

"Yeah," Lloyd said, slowly realizing it. "And to think I once considered them war-lovers…"

Raine smacked Lloyd hard over the head. "Don't you dare ever be prejudice like that again!"

"Ow…" Lloyd whined, clutching the sore spot on his head.

The group continued walking for a very long time. Everyone seemed to be getting tired. When Zyn noticed how everyone seemed to be clearly getting weaker, he offered them a few words of encouragement: "We're almost there".

And indeed they were. In just a few short minutes, the group was standing at the entrance to the headquarters. Yuan wanted everyone to build that weapon so they could break down the door to the headquarters, but maybe Zyn would render that weapon completely useless by talking to his leader about why the war was even going on in the first place.

The hallways to the headquarters were long and seemed very creepy. There was just something dark and foreboding about the entire place that made it seem like bad news. The lights hanging from the ceiling reflected off the yellow uniform that Zyn was wearing, making his outfit look brighter. The reflected light showed itself on the dark gray walls of the headquarters.

After leading the group through all the hallways and forcing them to make sudden turns several times, he finally came to a stop in front of a large door.

Lloyd then looked at Zyn, and his face suddenly looked very malicious and hateful. A wicked sneer spread across his face as he banged on the door.

"Lord Tiberius!" Zyn screamed excitedly. "I have them!"

"What?..." Lloyd asked, his voice heightening.

The door slowly opened and a figure walked out. He seemed rather tall and had hair that was very dark. A few bangs of hair hung in front of the man's face, partly covering his piercing green eyes. His uniform was completely silver, from the collar down to his shoes. He had no metals, merits, badges or anything symbolizing rank; it was obvious enough just by looking at his uniform that he was probably the one in charge.

As soon as the man in the silver uniform walked completely out of the door, Zyn got on one knee and bowed down to him.

The man in silver clothes started snickering. "So, Zyn, _these_ are the ones who destroyed my space station and temporarily thwarted my plans?"

"Zyn, what's going on!" Lloyd yelled.

"This better not be what it looks like," Sheena said coldly.

"Yes, lord Tiberius," Zyn said, getting back on both feet. "These are indeed the ones."

Tiberius, the one in the silver uniform, turned towards Lloyd's group. "I was hoping just to catch the one responsible for my space station being destroyed and the crystal getting lost forever, but to have all your companions is more than I could have asked for," he said in a very plain, but very masculine tone.

"Zyn…you rotten…"

Zyn laughed when he looked at the shocked looks on Lloyd's face. "I hope you don't mind being executed, because I have a feeling it's about to happen very soon."

"Wonderful work, Zyn," Tiberius said with a smile on his face. After finishing this statement, he clapped his hands and several guards came out.

All the guards looked like high-ranked Tiberian soldiers. They pointed their swords at Lloyd and his party, ready to kill in case any of them tried to do something.

"Oh, and by the way, I hope you weren't planning on escaping with these," Zyn said with an insincere grin on his face. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two small black boxes: Lloyd and Yuan's teleporters.

"What!" Lloyd yelled. "But how'd you?..." Lloyd started frantically feeling all the pockets in his shirt and pants, hoping to find the teleporter in one of them, but he had no luck. Yuan's appeared to truly have been gone, as well.

"Once again, Zyn, wonderful work," Tiberius complemented. "Guards, take these intruders to the dungeon. I shall spend all of tonight thinking of what way I'll like to see them die the most."

Lloyd and his group were led off by the guards to the dungeon where they would spend the rest of their final night alive. As they were walking away, Lloyd turned around and looked at Zyn as he was being led off.

Zyn stared back at Lloyd with a cold glare that Lloyd had no idea what was meant to be said by it.

The nine of them were in the dungeon now and the guards locked the door. In the jail cell, Lloyd looked at his allies…no, his friends. Genis, Colette, Raine, Zelos, Sheena, Regal, Presea and Yuan. All of them had looks of despair on their faces. They were all evidently furious about Zyn just double crossing them like that. And without their teleporters, the group had no hope of making it out.

Lloyd continued looking at his friends. He knew that tonight would be the final night any of them would be alive.


	31. Learning the Truth

Hi everyone. I'm just writing this to thank Leppers for that last review. Leppers, don't worry if your life is crazy and you can't review, it's no big deal. You've probably got more important things to worry about then reviewing a story, after all.

Anyway, thank you to everyone reading this. I know there are a few others of you who are reading this, my stats counter says so.

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The cell was dark and cold. Everyone was sleeping in the cell, but not in very comfortable positions. Everyone was either sleeping up against the stone wall or sprawled out across the floor. No one was warm of comfortable.

Lloyd was the only one who hadn't fallen asleep. He was very upset (to say the least) that he and everyone had come that far to save Tiberia, and then trying to save themselves from Tiberia, only to get betrayed near the end.

Lloyd was still sulking when he heard the door to the cell open. Slowly, he turned around, and he was shocked to see who was standing there.

"Zyn!" Lloyd yelled, partly from anger and partly from surprise. "What are you…"

Zyn ran over to Lloyd and covered his mouth with one of his hands.

"Quiet!" Zyn whispered in a commanding tone. "You want Tiberius to hear you?"

Lloyd didn't say a word as Zyn quietly roused everyone and woke them up. It didn't take any of them long at all to start criticizing Zyn about how he had betrayed them.

"Everyone, give me a second to explain, all right?" Zyn asked as he looked at Lloyd and his friends. "Oh, by the way, I thought you might want these."

Zyn reached into one of his pockets and pulled out two black boxes-the teleporters. He threw one of them to Lloyd and the other to Yuan.

"Why are you doing this? Who's side are you on, anyway!" Lloyd demanded.

Zyn kept a calm look on his face. "Don't kill yourself, Lloyd. And I'm on your side."

"_Our_ side?" Lloyd asked, stunned. "Then how come you turned us into that Tiberius guy or whatever?"

"I had to get his guard down," Zyn said. "I'm his second-in-command, and I had to make it look like I wasn't working with the enemy."

"Why didn't you tell us it was all a setup?" Lloyd asked.

"Hey, your reactions had to be natural, right?"

Lloyd groaned, but he was slowly starting to trust Zyn again. However, the same didn't hold true for everybody else, especially Yuan.

"Would you mind telling me exactly what the hell is going on here?" Yuan asked Zyn sternly.

"Yuan, I think I may have to give you a bit of a history lesson for this all to make sense now," Zyn said lowly.

"Aw man, I hate history," Lloyd whined.

So Zyn started telling everybody of what he thought they needed to know in order to understand why Tiberius was acting the way he did and how it all came about.

"4,000 years ago, before any of you were even born, there was a great war on your world. Your people called it the Kharlan War," Zyn started.

"I'll have you know I was alive during that war," Yuan said with his arms crossed.

Zyn looked at Yuan in disbelief. "Wait…you're _the_ Yuan? So the names aren't coincidence? You're the same Yuan that our records told us about?"

"It depends," Yuan said. "What do your records say?"

"Were you one of Mithos's four Seraphim?"

"Yes, I was."

Zyn looked shocked, but a bit relieved at the same time. "Then this will probably make the most sense to you. Anyway, our world came into being about 4,000 years ago during the Kharlan War. This world's name was originally Korsel."

"Korsel!" Yuan asked. "That was the name of someone who served for Mithos."

"Yes," Zyn said. "At least, according to our legends, someone who _was_ working for Mithos. As I'm sure you're aware, Korsel soon decided he didn't believe in the same ideals as Mithos and led a rebellion. He tried to kill Mithos, but was stopped."

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing," Yuan said. "I wish we knew back then what Mithos was going to do with his power."

"Anyway, as the story goes, since Korsel failed at stopping Mithos and realized he would be killed, he decided to flee and used every ounce of strength he had to create a world like Mithos did."

"Oh no," Lloyd moaned. "There's someone just as powerful as Mithos out there? Don't tell me we're going to have to kill him, too."

"Listen to the rest of the story, Lloyd," Zyn said in a stern voice. "Anyway, Mithos decided not to follow and kill Korsel on his own world, but he kept tabs on him. He made sure Korsel understood clearly that if he was doing anything suspicious, Mithos would come along and obliterate him."

"Whoa, this is getting kind of complicated," Lloyd said. "So Korsel was in Mithos's army and rebelled against him, but his plans to kill Mithos were failed. So he created his own world like how Mithos created Sylvarant and Teth'ealla and spent the rest of his life living there and not doing anything, knowing Mithos would kill him if he did?"

"That's right," Zyn clarified. "However, according to our history, Mithos knew that in case something was to happen to himself, Korsel would attack the world and everyone living on it would be completely helpless to defend themselves. So, Mithos took a huge amount of his power and put it into a crystal, then hid it away and shared its location only with his companions."

"It's all coming together…" Lloyd realized. "That crystal that Kayne tricked us into stealing for him was the same one as the one Mithos put a lot of his powers in. That means…when we fought Mithos he only had a fraction of his natural powers?"

"That's right," Yuan said. "Consider yourself lucky he was caring for people other than himself back then when he put all his powers into the crystal."

"Wait a minute!" Lloyd said loudly. "Zyn just said that Mithos only told his companions about the crystal, and you're one of his companions. Did you know about this the whole time!"

"If you're asking me about whether or not I knew of the crystal's origins and that it was hidden on that island, then yes, I knew."

"Why didn't you tell me!"

"You had Kratos to help you. Believe it or not, he and I couldn't believe that the crystal was being hunted down was the same one that Mithos put a lot of his power in."

Lloyd was starting to get agitated that Yuan knew a lot more about the crystal (as did Kratos) and neither one of them told him about it. He was about to start complaining until Zyn talked over him.

"Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?"

"…yeah," Lloyd finally said.

"Okay. At any rate, there was soon a war on Korsel's world hundreds of years later when more people came to live there. Korsel was killed in a battle, and his second in command, commander Vice, took over."

"Commander Vice?" Lloyd asked. "Kratos was telling me all about him! He told me Vice died a mysterious death." (recall back to chapter 18)

"Mysterious death? Heh. I guess Mithos didn't have the best intelligence out there," Zyn said with a smirk on his face.

"What do you mean?"

"Vice followed in Korsel's footsteps and kept a grudge on Mithos after the failed assassination attempt. He continued making the people of Korsel think that you guys were the enemies and that you must be stopped."

"Why didn't you come down to crush us?" Lloyd asked.

"Because Mithos was still alive," Zyn answered. "If they tried coming down, Mithos would destroy them all in a heartbeat."

"So…the only reason you guys invaded our world is because Mithos was dead and there was no one in your way to stop you from annihilating us!" Lloyd yelled.

"Yes, but that's not important right now," Zyn said. "As I was saying, Vice didn't die a mysterious death or anything of the sort. Two of his highest ranking soldiers led a conspiracy and killed him."

"…what?" Lloyd said. He was at a loss of words for what was going on. He couldn't believe everything Zyn was telling him.

"Yes," Zyn said sadly. "The two conspirators' names were Tiberius and Zyn."

There was a gasp or shocked expression coming from everyone in the cell.

"So you helped Tiberius gang up and kill Vice?" Lloyd asked, trying to make sure he understood everything.

"Yes," Zyn sadly said. "That turns out to have been the biggest mistake of my life. After the deed was done, Tiberius and I made Vice's death look like an accident. Since Tiberius was the second-in-command, he was given the position of leader of the world. He changed the world's name from Korsel to Tiberia."

"He named the world after himself?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes," Zyn replied. "And he's been, if anything, worse than Vice ever since. He's become power hungry and hostile and he has become violent to unspeakable extents with your world."

"All of this just because Korsel didn't succeed at doing something almost 4,000 years ago?"

"Wow, Lloyd!" Genis exclaimed. "You actually remember everything Zyn just told us?"

"Shut it, Genis."

"That's correct," Zyn said. "When we noticed that your two worlds were now one, we hoped that Mithos had been killed. Sure enough, you guys were powerful enough to defeat him. With Mithos gone, there was no one who could stop our army when we invaded."

"So you guys planned for a couple months before coming down and looking for the crystal so you could use it to power that giant space station and destroy our world?" Lloyd asked.

"We actually went down sooner than that. But a soldier was caught by Stromm's fleet and revealed that we were coming to find the crystal, so Stromm started looking for it on his own. Soon enough, it was a race between our world and Stromm to find the crystal."

Lloyd had an even harder time believing it now. If it weren't for that fateful time when he and Colette's boat got sidetracked while fighting Skelter and his pirates, then they would have never got lost in the storm and washed ashore that island. And if that didn't happen, then Kayne's boat wouldn't have come to rescue them. They wouldn't have gotten caught up in the race to find the crystal. And if it weren't for Lloyd and his companions, then maybe the crystal would never have been found at all. The part that irked Lloyd most of all was that if he didn't kill Stromm after Stromm acquired the crystal, then he wouldn't have had to stop Tiberius. Even more so, Kratos would have still been alive.

"Then you interfered and killed Stromm, thinking you were saving our world," Zyn said. "While you did save our world, you practically doomed your own."

"I know," Lloyd said. "But I destroyed your space station and the crystal with it, so doesn't that pretty much end your hopes to destroy it?"

"Lloyd, did you listen to a thing Tiberius said when we just met him?" Genis asked. "He said we only temporarily thwarted his plans. Meaning it's only a matter of time before he comes back even harder and with more motivation than ever to destroy our world."

"You're right and wrong," Zyn said. "Tiberius _will_ try harder to destroy your world now; make no mistake about that. However, to say you only temporarily thwarted his plans would be a giant lie. By destroying the space station, you destroyed his secret weapon. Now, he has nothing to destroy your world with at all. Not only that, but the power source, the crystal, was also lost in the explosion. Now he has nothing to power his next giant weapon."

"Well, I guess that's a relief," Lloyd confidently said.

"But that doesn't mean we should just let him go," Zyn said. "You may have stopped his plan, but he's just going to try again. We have to stop him before he tries something more sinister."

"_We?_" Lloyd asked. "You're helping?"

"Yes," Zyn said. "I don't want Tiberius to rule any longer; I can't even stand the fact that our world is now named after him."

"Look, we got bigger things to worry about than its name," Lloyd said. "You want us to help you take down Tiberius once and for all, right?"

"Yes," Zyn said.

"What do you say, guys?" Lloyd asked, turning to his friends. "You guys up for one last fight?"

"Yeah!" Genis, Colette, Raine, Sheena, Regal, Presea, Zelos and Yuan all said in unison.

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All right, a lot of information was passed around in this chapter, and that should pretty much tie up any loose ends so far in this story. So please, if you're confused about anything that happened just now, please ask me in a review and I'll do my best to answer it.


	32. Endgame

Hi everyone. No, this isn't one of those things to thank all of your for your reviews. (but I might as well now that I'm talking-thank you kindly for that last review, Leppers) Instead I want you guys to know that today marks the beginning of another story I'm currently writing. It's in the Goosebumps section and is called The End of Time. It's a sequel to Camp Glaregon, which I started early last October. If any of you guys are interested in it, I'd really appreciate some feedback on it.

Meanwhile, back to Tales of Tiberia. I'm sure you're all very anxious to see this story continue to progress, right?...right!

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The new group was now packed tightly into the small cell where Lloyd's group was going to await execution. But with Zyn on their side now, they were hoping that maybe an execution could be completely averted. That is, as long as they could trust him.

"All right," Zyn said. "If we're going to stop Tiberius once and for all, we're going to need a brilliant plan in place. We need to attack him by surprise and when he is the weakest. With him gone, the rest of the Tiberian army will crumble without his leadership."

"All right," Lloyd said. "When do we do that?"

"Yeah, it sounds kind of hard," Colette said in a scared voice.

Lloyd, trying to show what a strong man he was, turned to Colette and said, "Don't worry. With Zyn on our side, killing Tiberius from behind will be a piece of cake."

"Unfortunately," Zyn said, starting to correct Lloyd, "Tiberius is usually either locked away in his own quarters or his heavily guarded in case something like this were to happen. Killing from the inside won't be so easy."

"Honestly, Lloyd," Genis said in a sarcastic and taunting tone after he saw how his best friend jumped to conclusions too early yet again.

Lloyd scowled a little, but realized it was no time to be getting grouchy with Genis's smart remarks. He turned back to Zyn to think about what the next thing was that they had to do.

"If I could make a suggestion," Yuan said in a rude tone before anyone else spoke up, "might I suggest we get out of here before we start discussing any plans?"

"Good thinking," Zyn said. "If any of the guards question me leading you guys out, I'll tell them that I'm leading you to another jail cell."

Everyone nodded their head in agreement and walked out of the jail cell. They made their way through the fortress-like headquarters and tried to find a quick way out without being detected. Luckily, since Zyn was very high in the ranks of the Tiberian army (second only to Tiberius himself), he had a fairly good idea of all the passage ways and shortcuts through the headquarters.

However, when they were leaving, the group came across one disturbing discovery that would put a huge damper on the rest of their mission to stop Tiberius before he did something really drastic.

It turned out the group had less time than he thought. When the group was walking through one of the secret rooms that had an emergency exit in case of an emergency, they saw that there was a giant laser-like weapon that was stationed in the room, along with blue prints.

"What is _that_!" Sheena said in complete awe.

"Zyn…is there a reason you did not speak of this to us?" Regal asked suspiciously.

Zyn looked worried. "I…I don't understand! I swear I did not know that Tiberius had another weapon! I guess he was working on one for a land war as well. But I'm telling you, I had no idea he was working on something like this!"

The group groaned knowing that there was a top secret weapon in development that not even Zyn, an insider with Tiberia's army, knew about.

"I sense somebody coming," Presea lifelessly said when the entire group went quiet.

In no time, everybody else could sense approaching footsteps as well. They all ran out the emergency exit to leave the room so they wouldn't be seen, but they kept their ear close to the door so they could hear who it was and what was going on.

After everyone was out of the building, Zyn listened in on who was in the room. It was Tiberius, and a familiar voice. Zyn heard the voice somewhere before…

"So, doctor, you have the blueprints and the general design completed?" the group heard Tiberius ask inside.

"Yes, lord Tiberius," said the voice.

"Oh…it's Doctor Foll," Zyn said. "He's a scientist working in our base. I guess he was working on this weapon for Tiberius."

"Splendid," Tiberius said. "Tell me what this thing is capable of."

"Well, lord Tiberius, this barrel will be used to fire a heavy blast of mana that is capable of killing hundreds in a single hit," Dr. Foll continued.

"Foll, you never cease to amaze me," the group heard Tiberius say. That was enough for the small group of ten people. They ran away from the headquarters as fast as they could.

When the group was far enough away from the headquarters to talk without being caught, all of them were clearly very worried now.

"So what are we going to do now?" Lloyd asked. "We're completely powerless if Tiberius uses that thing. Not even our exspheres could protect us from a weapon like that."

"Yes," Regal said softly. "I say we try to destroy the weapon before Tiberius can do anything deadly with it."

"Guys, just making sure you realize this…" Zyn started. "If Tiberius is expecting an attack from us, then we're as good as dead. All he has to do is prepare that weapon and anyone it touches will practically be vaporized."

"Yeah," Lloyd said in agreement. "We'll get killed even more than when that giant monster we encountered on the island almost ripped us to shreds. Remember that, Colette?"

"Giant…monster?...on the island?" Zyn asked.

Lloyd turned to Zyn with a look of interest, yet confusion. "Yeah. What's so special about it?"

"Did it have dark fur and red eyes and bared teeth and claws? Did it stand upright on its two hind legs?" Zyn asked, scared.

"Yeah," Lloyd said, starting to get freaked out. "How did you know about that?"

"Those were monsters sent by Tiberius himself," Zyn admitted.

Lloyd gave Zyn a confused look. "What do you mean 'they were sent by Tiberius'?"

"Tiberius had those monsters and had been training them for a while. He knew that the crystal was located somewhere on one of the three islands that made up the one giant island, so he sent one to each of the three islands to investigate." (try to recall back in chapter 2)

"So _that's_ what the thing was," Lloyd said. "And now we know how it got onto the island."

"Well, now that we've got everything cleared up, why don't we think about how we're going to strike without Tiberius expecting us?" Zyn suggested.

"Easier said than done," Yuan said, brining everyone down. "But it seems like Tiberius has more than enough security to keep himself well guarded."

"But Yuan," Zyn started, "weren't you one of Cruxis's Four Seraphim?"

"I thought I just explained this," Yuan said in an exasperated tone. "Yes, I am."

"Then you can fly, right?"

"Of course I can. It's part of being an angel, you know."

Lloyd had the urge to blurt something out then. "But Yuan, Colette and I tried using our wings over and over, and a lot of times they wouldn't come out!"

"I thought Kratos would have explained that to you," Yuan said coldly.

"What do you mean?"

"Lloyd, the reasons your angel wings didn't come out is because you and Colette were too close to the crystal."

"Too close to the crystal?"

"Yes. The crystal had so much power in it that just being around it neutralized your power to pull out your wings. Now that the crystal is destroyed, you won't have to worry about that anymore."

"Hey, I actually think I understood that," Lloyd said in a proud tone with a smile.

"I think you're just imaging things," Genis said in an insulting tone.

"It doesn't matter whether or not a stupid kid like yourself can understand it," Yuan said hotly.

"Excuse me!"

"Enough bickering!" Zyn said loudly and jumping into what was soon to become a long verbal argument between the two. "We need to focus more on stopping Tiberius before he starts developing something even more dangerous than that weapon he already has."

"Do you think he'll stop if we asked him nicely?" Colette said in a way-too-pleasant voice.

"No, I don't think he will," Lloyd said in a sad tone. (mostly sad for how cheerful Colette was and how easy she thought the problem would get resolved.

"Well, since you guys have your wings," Zyn said, "you could just fly to the top of the headquarters, break in from there and destroy the weapon and kill Tiberius."

"Somehow I get the feeling it won't be that simple," Yuan said. "Tiberius will more than likely have enough troops there to hold us off."

"Wait a minute," Zyn said. "Maybe attacking the headquarters isn't the best solution."

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.

"I'd say that before we destroy the weapon and kill Tiberius, I think we should destroy something that symbolizes his reign."

"Really?" Lloyd asked. "What's that?"

"Tower Tiberia."

"Tower Tiberia?" Lloyd asked. "What's that?"

"It's a very tall tower," Zyn explained. "It stretches practically up to the clouds and is very skinny."

"Come to think of it," Lloyd said, "I think Kratos and I saw that tower when we were planning to attack Kayne."

Lloyd's recollection was indeed correct. He had seen Tower Tiberia before. Little did he know it would turn out to be a symbol to the true enemy's reign of terror on chaos upon the world of Tiberia.

"I guess we could do that," Lloyd said.

"Great!" Zyn said excitedly. "We should get some sleep tonight. We've got a big day tomorrow."

"Hold on a minute," Yuan interrupted. "Don't you think we should recruit some men ourselves for tomorrow's battle?"

"Leave that to me," Zelos proudly said.

"Leave it to _you_?" Sheena interjected.

"I think you've forgotten something, my sweet hunny," Zelos said in a perverted way. "I got ties to the king of Meltokio. He has to give me anything my beautiful little heart desires. All I gotta do is go to him and ask him to lend me the whole Meltokio army. Simple as that."

"You sure he's going to let you get away with that?" Genis said in a snobby and sarcastic tone.

"Completely ignoring Brat's comment," Zelos said, trying his best to annoy Genis, "I think the king will be more than happy to lend me a few of his soldiers."

"It doesn't look like we have much of a choice," Yuan said. "Very well. Off to Meltokio it is."

Yuan pulled out his teleporter and hit the button. The same show of lights appeared around them all, and they were all back in the majestic city just like that. Zelos led the entire group into the king's chamber; none of the guards hesitated for a second to stop him.

Finally, Zelos was in the throne room. The moment the king looked at him, you could tell he was not pleased to see the Tethe'alla Chosen.

"What is it that you have come for now? If it's another one of those lawsuits, then forget it, I can't keep lending you my best attorneys," the king coldly said.

Zelos scoffed. "Relax. This time, it's not about a hunny."

"It's not?"

"Anything but. You see, we've got a little friend on some far-off world called Tiberia and he wants to do a lot of bad things, like kill innocent people because of something that happened a few thousands of years ago. I think it would…"

"Get to the point!" the king snapped loud enough to make everyone in the room jump.

"All right, don't lose your hair," Zelos said. "I want you to give me your entire army to lead into battle and stop this guy."

The king looked like he just caught Zelos in bed with his daughter. (which sometimes didn't seem too far off) "You must be joking!"

"Normally, I'm a joking kinda guy; but this time, I'm dead serious," Zelos said. His tone even got more serious with each passing word. "So, what is it? Ya gonna lend me your troops or not?"

"Absolutely not!" the king yelled.

"Maybe you were too distracted by my pretty face to hear me correctly," Zelos rudely said. "_Are you going to give me your troops? Yes? Or No?"_

The king realized Zelos wasn't about to accept no as an answer. "Fine! If it'll just make you leave me chamber, then take as many as you need!"

"Thanks, your majesty," Zelos said. "I always knew I could count on you." Zelos turned around to his friends. "Come on, guys. Let's scadoot."

The entire group walked out of the castle. Zelos stopped them all when they were all outside.

"Lloyd, take everyone and head to my mansion. You guys can stay there for tonight."

"Wait, where are you going to go?" Lloyd asked.

"I'm going to the military academy to round up all the soldiers for tomorrow's battle. I probably won't be back until late."

"All right," Lloyd said as he turned his attention back to the rest of the group. "Come on, guys. Let's get some shut eye. We got a huge fight coming up."

Lloyd led everyone into Zelos's mansion. He was soon greeted by the butler.

"Sir Bud, how good to see you again," the butler politely said.

"Er…thanks," Lloyd said, too tired and too occupied to really care to correct the butler on what he called him. "Zelos said that we could spend the night here."

"Very well, then," the butler said. "I shall select rooms for all of you to sleep in for the night."

Lloyd thanked the butler. In just a few short minutes, everyone was going into their own room to get their last night's sleep before the most decisive battle to be fought yet. And true to his word, Zelos didn't get back until hours after all of them had fallen asleep.

The next morning, everyone got up just as the sun was peeking its view out from the horizon. Most people would think it was a normally beautiful day, but knowing what was going to happen made it very scary.

Lloyd was the first to walk out of Zelos's mansion. He was greeted by seeing the faces of literally thousands of soldiers piled up outside Zelos's house and flooding the streets of Meltokio. None of them said a word.

Lloyd was awestruck with how many soldiers Zelos was bringing for this battle. He couldn't say a word, and neither did any of the soldiers.

Zelos was the next one to come out of the mansion. He went over to Lloyd's side and gave a confident, yet caring smile at him. Lloyd weakly smiled back and Zelos gave him a few pats on the back and started walking out of Meltokio and all the soldiers followed him.

Lloyd only could stand as still as a statue as he saw all the troops leaving as they followed Zelos. He watched as all his other companions for the battle: Colette, Genis, Raine, Sheena, Presea, Regal, Yuan and Zyn, all emptied out of the mansion and followed the soldiers. Ironically, Lloyd was the first one out of the mansion, yet he was the last to leave Meltokio.

Yuan pulled out his teleporter and they were all on Tiberia in a matter of moments. The sky seemed a brownish-orange, as the sun was just rising there as well. It definitely looked the way you'd expect a morning of a critical battle to look.

Just looking at everyone's faces gave Lloyd enough insight to know what they were thinking, and they were all thinking the same thing. Their facial expressions were clearly saying, "This is it. This is what it's all come down to."

Everyone was dead silent the entire march, though. The soldiers and their ten elites were making a steady march through the streets of Tiberia's towns as the approached the headquarters more and more. It would soon be time to begin the final battle.


	33. Final Battle Part 1

The long march to the headquarters was a very silent one. Yes, there were the sounds of the metal armor on the Meltokio soldiers that were clanking as they walked, but somehow, Lloyd and his nine companions were able to drown out those sounds completely. Right now, they had the most important battle since the one with Mithos right ahead of them.

Lloyd and Zyn were standing side-by side each other, and their other eight allies were standing behind them in a horizontal line. Standing behind them were all the hundreds of Meltokio soldiers all lined up very neatly and in an organized fashion.

The headquarters was now just in sight, and Lloyd took a deep breath. He stopped, as did everyone else behind him. Lloyd slowly turned around and looked at his friends.

"This is it, guys," he said. "There's no going back after this. You all ready?"

"Yeah," Colette said nervously, not knowing what else to say. "It's time to save the world once again."

"Ready as I'll ever be!" Genis said excitedly, throwing his arms up into the air.

"As I've said before, I'm ready to accept whatever happens in the coming battle," Raine said in a soft, nervous voice.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Sheena said nervously. "Time to show all of Mizuho that I can truly be a great chief."

"Well, I don't know much about you guys," Zelos started, "but I'm ready to show that Tiberius punk what happens when you mess with the great Zelos Wilder!"

"If we fail, then Tiberius will come back and destroy our world years from now. We have to stop him now while we still have time," Presea said lifelessly.

"Indeed," Regal said. "Tiberius almost succeeded last time. We cannot allow it to happen again."

"You know, normally I wouldn't care so much if the world was in great peril, considering I've always got Derris-Kharlan to return to," Yuan said. "But there are some boundaries you just can't cross, and Tiberius has crossed them."

"And I'm doing this for myself," Zyn said. "Words cannot express my remorse for once working for that man and being his second in command. I hope to defeat him and become leader of Tiberia and rule it better than he did."

"Yeah," Lloyd said. "And I'm doing this for Kratos. He gave his life to stop Tiberius's plan from succeeding, and I can't let that go to waste!"

Lloyd turned around and was facing his front again. "All right, guys. Let's go!"

Everyone continued marching again towards the dark looking headquarters. However, all of them were soon extremely disappointed.

"W…what's going on?" Lloyd asked.

The headquarters was completely deserted. The doors were unlocked, but there was absolutely no one inside. All the Tiberian troops had been moved out, apparently. But to where? The most disturbing part was that the weapon the group had seen just the night before was gone.

"Well, there's one last location I supposed we could check," Zyn said. "If Tiberius is anywhere, he's probably in Tower Tiberia now."

"You mean that tall, skinny building?" Lloyd asked.

"That's right," Zyn said. "That's the only place I can think of where he'd be."

"All right, I guess we're going to Tower Tiberia," Lloyd said confidently.

Once again, the troops were marching and heading to the final battle. Sure enough, Tower Tiberia was soon in view, as was a nasty surprise for the group when they got there.

As soon as they were just several yards in front of Tower Tiberia, they saw all the Tiberian troops lined up in attack position and ready to charge. Standing from a very high balcony on the tower was Tiberius, and he was giving Zyn a very nasty look.

"Zyn!" Tiberius shouted down, his black bangs getting knocked back and forth. "You traitor!"

"Tiberius!" Zyn called up to his former boss. "You gotta give this up! These guys are no different from us. They were living peaceful lives and didn't do a thing to us!"

"It's not about what they did, Zyn," Tiberius called down. "It's about what Mithos did 4,000 years ago."

"Tiberius, the ones living today had nothing to do with that war. There's no point in killing them for something they had no involvement in, and I can't believe it took me that long to realize it. All you're doing is putting hatred into the hearts of our people for no good reason at all."

Tiberius smirked. "And I'll show you what happens when I harness that hatred. Soldiers-attack!"

Instantly, all the Tiberian soldiers drew their weapons and started charging at Lloyd, his companions and the Meltokio army. It was like an oncoming ambush. A slaughter.

"Here they come!" Lloyd instinctively yelled.

The Meltokio soldiers jumped to the front and instantly pulled out their swords. The two armies clashed as blood started flying through the air and soldiers started dropping at a very rapid pace.

Lloyd unsheathed his material blades and started charging through all the Tiberian soldiers that got in his way, simply slicing them across their abdomens and across their throats and killing them instantly.

Yuan, Zelos and Zyn also pulled out giant swords and were becoming very destructive with them. All of them were practically annihilating all the Tiberians that came their way. None of them even stood a chance against the trio.

Regal and Presea fought side by side. Presea was deadly with her giant axe as Regal was deadly with his greaves. No soldiers even came close to the two as they kept battling and knocking them down.

Genis and Raine stayed as far back as possible and casting their defensive magic. With Genis's indignation and eruptions, he was knocking off handfuls of Tiberians at once. Raine occasionally cast her photon, but a lot of the time she was healing any wounded Meltokio soldiers who she could safely reach.

Colette also stayed pretty far back and threw her chakrams at any Tiberians who tried coming at her. She also had her angel powers to defend herself in case things ever got really bad.

Lloyd continued fighting brutally until he heard a loud roaring sound coming from behind. He turned around and saw one of the giant monsters that attacked him and Colette when they got stuck on the island.

Lloyd started slashing savagely at the monster, but the monster was able to dodge all of Lloyd's swipes. The monster actually got a good hit on Lloyd when it slammed him in the side of the head with it's giant paw.

Lloyd got knocked on the ground and had a trail of blood clearly flowing from his face. This just motivated him to fight harder. He pushed himself up and tried his best to ignore the pain, and it finally worked.

When the monster was about to attack him again, Lloyd gathered up every ounce of strength he had and jumped over the monster when it attacked. This confused it and when it was staggering temporarily, Lloyd stuck his flamberge through the monster's back until it came out the other side.

The monster howled in pain as Lloyd then proceeded to stick his vorpal sword in it, making the monster scream even louder in pain.

Lloyd ripped both of his blades out of the monster and watched it slowly lose its strength. It promptly fell frontward on the ground, dead.

"That's what I should have done to you the first time we met back on that island," Lloyd said coldly as he stared at the monster's dead body. (although it was very hard to hear him say anything, due to the sounds of the clashing of swords and the sound of men screaming as they died)

Meanwhile, Genis and Raine were still doing their best to fight from the sides, but they were soon attacked by the second monster that Tiberius sent out on the islands to scavenge for the crystal.

Genis let out a terrified cry, but Raine seemed to have a plan.

"Genis, I'll distract the monster," she insisted. "You cast indignation on it."

"But Raine, what if the indignation hits _you_?"

"Genis, if you're the greatest sorcerer in Iselia like you claim to be, then you shouldn't accidentally hit me," Raine said softly.

Genis nodded his head, and Raine jumped right in front of the monster. "Hmmm…not much of a specimen."

The monster growled as if it knew Raine were insulting it and started chasing her. Raine wasn't all that fast, which proved to be a huge problem for Genis.

"I call upon thee in the land of the dead to unleash thy fury of thunder…INDIGNATION!" Genis cried.

Suddenly, a giant ball of energy started forming above the monster's head. When it looked up to see what the light was, a giant blast of lightning shot down and literally blew it to pieces, causing its limbs and parts of its body to go flying all over the place.

"Eww…" Genis said as he saw what the result of his blast did.

With two monsters down, the final one headed towards Yuan and Zyn. Neither of them looked to worried about it.

"Heh," Yuan said. "I'd almost think this was funny."

"Enough talking," Zyn said. "Let's just kill it."

The monster growled and picked up Zyn by the throat, causing Zyn to drop his sword on the ground.

Knowing he couldn't attack the monster in an instant-kill spot without wounding Zyn as well, Yuan decided to take his sword and go for the monster's legs. He made a quick cut across its legs and caused it to drop Zyn.

Zyn fell to the ground hard, but he looked up at Yuan. "Thanks," he managed to choke out.

Yuan let out a soft "hmmm" sound as he sprouted his angelic wings and flew right in front of the monster's face.

The monster made several attempts to swipe at Yuan, but Yuan just kept flying out of the way of them. This monster wasn't posing much of a challenge to him.

When the monster was clearly getting tired, Yuan whipped out his sword, and in once clean cut, he slashed it right through the monster's neck. The monster's head was severed. It fell onto the ground as the remainder of the body lifelessly collapsed onto the dark brown, blood stained dirt.

With all the monsters now dead, the group could focus more on killing all the Tiberian soldiers. Lloyd was horrified when he looked around and saw what he did. There were still literally thousands of people battling, but the even more alarming part was the people that were killed.

Lloyd saw that there were several hundred bodies on the ground, smeared with blood and some of them even being mutilated or dismembered. All of these soldiers-Tiberians and Meltokians alike, were murdered. And for what, an influence of something from thousands of years before?

As if that weren't horrifying enough, Lloyd looked up at the top of Tower Tiberia. _Now_ he knew what happened to the top secret weapon from the headquarters. Tiberius had his men move it from the headquarters and to the top of the building. (it was probably through the use of cranes or some other sort of technology.)

"Dammit!" Lloyd cursed. "If the weapon's up there, then Tiberius will be able to fire it across a much wider area. I gotta stop it!"

"You're not going alone," said a voice from behind.

Lloyd turned around and Yuan and Zyn were standing there. Both of them looked tired and slightly wounded from the massive clash that was taking place between the two armies.

"Guys, if Tiberius has that weapon on top of the tower, who knows what kind of damage it could do? It would be able to fire at a much further and wider target than if it were on the ground!"

"Yes," Zyn said. "We need to go in there and destroy it from there. With any luck, we'll find Tiberius in there and finish him as well."

"Very well, then," Yuan said with no objection. "Let's go."

"Wait a minute!" Lloyd yelled. "What about everyone else?"

"They can fight for themselves on this battlefield," Yuan said. "For now, we three just need to get into that tower and stop Tiberius and destroy the weapon from the top of the tower."

"All right," Lloyd softly said.

Lloyd, Zyn and Yuan all ran inside Tower Tiberia, ready to stop the weapon and heading into the final confrontation with Tiberius.


	34. Final Battle Part 2

The chase was on inside Tower Tiberia. Tower Tiberia didn't look like anything amazing. In fact, the building itself looked very basic in design. For the first several floors, there was nothing inside the tower aside from a winding metal staircase that seemed to lead up and up.

"Hurry!" Zyn yelled as he jumped in front of Lloyd and Yuan. "I'll lead the way up the tower. I know it best, after all."

Lloyd and Yuan agreed to Zyn leading them up the tower without second-guessing it for a second.

The trio made their way up the long, twisting metal stairs as they climbed higher and higher up the tower. The sounds of the swords clashing, people screaming as they got killed or severely wounded and the sounds of powerful spells striking people could be heard, even through the thick stone walls of Tower Tiberia.

Finally, after several floors, the metal staircase came to an end. Right in front of the trio was a long hallway with a dirty and stained wooden floor and blank white walls on the side.

Lloyd, Zyn and Yuan all started running through the halls, taking very sharp corners and having to make sudden turns. All three of them stopped dead in their tracks when they came to a four-way split.

"Great," Lloyd complained. "Now where are we going to go?"

"Couldn't we all split up?" Yuan suggested. "It's not a very hard thing to do, you know."

"I guess we have no choice," Zyn said. "Fine. I'll go to the left. Lloyd, you take the middle and Yuan can have the right."

"Since when do I take orders from you?" Yuan asked stubbornly. One look at Zyn's serious and annoyed face changed his mind. "Fine, if you want me to go right, I'll go right."

"Okay," Lloyd said. "In case I don't see either of you again, good luck fighting Tiberius."

"You too, Lloyd," both of his allies said.

And with that, the trio parted ways and were soon acting on their own instead of as a group.

As Lloyd ran up the long, empty hallways, he started getting concerned when he saw no sign of Tiberius or anyone else at all. Even though the building didn't seem to be very large (apart from its height) it didn't look like Tower Tiberia would be a hard thing to get lost in, but now Lloyd was having second guesses.

Lloyd continued running, trying his best to keep up all the energy he had and making it last as long as possible.

His run suddenly ended when he came to yet another fork in the halls. He stopped and started breathing heavily. He looked at how he once again had to choose from two other paths and he wondered which would be the best one to take. But if he was wrong this time, there was no telling what the consequences would be.

But he didn't have to think long. In a short while, Zyn started running from one of the other paths, and his path instantly crossed with Lloyd's.

"Lloyd?" Zyn asked. "What are you doing here?"

"This is where my hallway ended up taking me," Lloyd explained. "Is that the same for you?"

"Yeah," Zyn said.

Only moments later, Yuan came bounding down from the third hallway. Apparently, it didn't matter which way any of them went if they were all going to wind up in the same spot again.

"Heh," Yuan snickered. "Here we are as a group again. Where do you propose we go now, Zyn?"

"I think we should all go straight," Zyn said.

"Hey Zyn, didn't you say you knew this tower well?" Lloyd asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well…then how come you didn't know that we'd all wind up in the same place if we took the different routes?"

"You know, I always just went straight," Zyn said. "Whenever I had to come this high up, which was usually rare, I just went straight and that took me right to the rest of the tower. Of course, there's no telling if Tiberius was really running ahead, which is why I had us all break into separate groups."

"Can we just stop talking and get moving?" Yuan asked. "Tiberius could be doing something very dangerous now and we need to stop him.

"You're right," Lloyd admitted. "Let's scram!"

The three of them were once again running together through the long corridors of the tower. They were all searching for Tiberius, hoping that if they defeated him, then the battle would be won.

As they continued running and the final battle got closer and closer, Lloyd started thinking. He started thinking about how everything was leading up to this moment. He thought of Stromm, Kayne, Skelter, Cesara, and now, unfortunately Kratos-all of whom died over the course of Lloyd's new journey. It never ceased to amaze the eternal swordsman of how simply getting knocked off track by a pirate could result in such a heart wrenching journey.

But Lloyd still had to keep his focus. He may have been in the very building where the final battle was going to take place, but the battle itself had yet to be fought. But that was all about to change.

As the group took the corner hallway, they saw a dead end in front of them that led to an elevator shaft. And standing at the elevator was none other than Tiberius himself.

Instead of saying anything to them, Tiberius just turned around and hit the button next to the elevator. Instantly, the metal doors opened and Tiberius ran inside, and then promptly slammed the button to close the doors.

The trio ran as quickly as they could to hop in the elevator, but they were just too late. Just as they arrived at the door, the doors closed on them. They all heard the elevator start heading up the shaft, leaving all three of them looking disappointed.

"Don't tell me it ends here," Zyn said, looking at the elevator doors. "Don't tell me we came all this way just to be shut out here…"

"Quit whining," Yuan said. He crossed his arms and his angelic wings suddenly sprouted. He started flapping in the air with them, then forced the elevator doors opened, revealing the giant, empty shaft. "Lloyd, sprout yours."

Lloyd obeyed Yuan and sprouted his own wings. The bright colors of their wings seemed to give Zyn hope, for some reason.

"Zyn, I don't suppose you can fly?" Yuan asked.

"No," Zyn said, embarrassed. "No, I can't."

"Then you'll just have to wait and let Lloyd and I finish the job," Yuan said calmly.

Saying this, Yuan started flying up the empty elevator shaft in pursuit of the elevator Tiberius was on. Lloyd followed, leaving Zyn standing there, unable to do anything.

While Zyn could only helplessly stare at the busted elevator door, Lloyd and Yuan were flying right beneath the elevator car Tiberius was in. Yuan held out his and started forming a ball of energy in it. When it was charged enough, he fired it through the floor of the elevator car and created a huge hole in it.

Unfortunately, Tiberius wasn't standing in the part that got blown open. Instead, he was safe in a corner of the elevator. And Tiberius was thankful that he wasn't standing above Yuan's blast; because not only did it have enough power to blow a hole through the bottom of the car, but it even kept going and blew open the top of it as well.

The elevator car was now going much slower, but it was still going up the shaft to where Tiberius told it to go.

In just moments, Lloyd and Yuan flew through the blown open hole in the car and were now inside the elevator with Tiberius. Tiberius's cold stare glared at them as they both started to get in their battle positions.

Without saying a word, Lloyd and Yuan pulled out their swords and got in their fighting stances. Tiberius pulled out his giant sword and a nasty sneer started spreading across his pale and cold face.

Lloyd jumped right in front of Tiberius and started violently clashing his material blades against his giant blood-stained sword.

Lloyd was surprised to see that his swords could even hold up against the magnitude of Tiberius's blade, but apparently, they were.

Just as it looked like Lloyd was about to get fatally wounded when Tiberius lunged at him with his sword, Yuan jumped in and blocked Tiberius's swing with his own sword.

In just a few seconds, Yuan and Tiberius were fighting while Lloyd was trying to recover his strength. When that finally happened, he saw Yuan was doing a fairly good job of holding Tiberius off.

When Lloyd finally started being able to fight again, he helped Yuan close in on Tiberius in a corner. Tiberius knew the magnitude Lloyd and Yuan could fight with, and the look of worry and horror was obvious on his face as he was backed into a small part of the elevator with no escape.

"It's over, Tiberius," Lloyd said as he got ready to stick his vorpal sword right through Tiberius and impale him into the wall of the elevator.

Making one last desperate attempt, Tiberius looked up.

"Not on my watch," Tiberius said in his plain and uncaring voice.

Saying this, Tiberius jumped into the air and out of the car. He landed on top of the elevator through the hole that Yuan created when he attempted to kill Tiberius just a few moments before.

Lloyd and Yuan both jumped out through the top hole as well, and the three of them were now battling on top of the elevator car as it continued to go higher and higher.

Lloyd and Yuan both teamed up and started fighting Tiberius, but Tiberius seemed as determined as ever and he obviously wasn't going to go down until he was officially dead.

Tiberius made a surprise attack and smashed the back of Lloyd's head with the handle of his sword. Lloyd moaned in pain as he lost his stability for a few moments and fell through the hole on the top and back into the elevator.

In fact, Lloyd had such rotten luck that he fell right through the whole in the bottom of the elevator. He was now falling towards the bottom of the elevator shaft, which would kill him on impact if he didn't do something.

With only moments left, Lloyd sprouted his angel wings and started flying back up through the elevator shaft. He passed right through the hole in the bottom of the elevator and went right through the one in the top as well.

Tiberius was shocked to see Lloyd come back so abruptly and so quickly that he didn't have any time to react. Lloyd took advantage of this by punching Tiberius in the face so hard that he got knocked onto his back.

As Tiberius struggled to get up, Lloyd drew both of his material blades and got ready to stick them both through Tiberius, but at the last second, Tiberius stuck his leg up and kicked Lloyd in the stomach.

Lloyd was sent backwards and off the edge of the car. Just as he was about to fall to the ground below, Yuan reached over at the last possible instant and grabbed Lloyd's ankle to keep him from falling. He pulled Lloyd back up on top of the car, but Lloyd didn't have time to thank him.

When Yuan had safely pulled Lloyd back on top of the car, they looked and saw Tiberius jumping off and inside the elevator. The doors to the elevator opened up, meaning they were on the floor Tiberius was trying to reach now.

Tiberius immediately seemed to know where he was going. He bolted out of the elevator car and started running up a long metal flight of stairs that seemed to go all the way to the top of the tower. (apparently, the elevator didn't go to the top-possibly for security reasons)

Lloyd and Yuan jumped out of the elevator as well and were heading for the flight of stairs Tiberius was running up.

It was clear Tiberius had a huge lead during the chase. He was several floors higher than Lloyd and Yuan, but they both tried running their hardest up the long, seemingly endless flight of stairs and hoping to catch him.

During that time, it was made obvious that Lloyd was a lot faster than Yuan was. Because of this, Lloyd was almost a full floor ahead of Yuan as the hot pursuit continued.

Finally, Tiberius reached the highest floor. He ran into a room at the end, and the room appeared to be some sort of control room.

Lloyd reached the top floor just as Tiberius made it inside the control room. Tiberius went over to one of the controls and slammed down one of the buttons on it. Instantly, heavy metal doors started closing that would separate Lloyd from Tiberius in the control room.

Lloyd made a great leap and just barely made it in the control room before the doors would have slammed and probably amputated any part caught in it. Yuan, however, was just too late.

Just as Yuan made it to the doors, they completely shut on him, locking him out of the control room. He started banging on the door with his sword and tried to blast it open with magic, but the metal door was virtually indestructible. There was no way it was breaking open.

"Damn!" Yuan said when he realized it was just Lloyd alone in the control room of Tower Tiberia with Tiberius. "Come on, Lloyd. Don't let us down."


	35. Final Battle Part 3

Lloyd was breathing heavily after making it into the control room just by hair. He had to press his hands on his kneecaps to support himself, but he kept his cold glare on Tiberius the whole time.

Tiberius had his back turned to Lloyd and was pressing an assortment of buttons and dials on the control panels. As he hit the buttons, Lloyd could hear the sounds of the heavy weapon charging outside, ready to fire and cause complete annihilation.

"So, I see the son of Kratos has made it all the way here," Tiberius said, not turning to Lloyd. As he continued to press buttons on the controls, Lloyd started speaking.

"Tiberius, you gotta stop this now!" Lloyd yelled. "This is an entire world we're talking about here! Real people are going to die if you don't stop this!"

Tiberius snickered and turned around.

"As I was saying," Tiberius said, "the son of Kratos made it here. Several times I've heard the stories of Kratos from the Kharlan War and I even heard that he had a son. I always knew that somebody, one of us superior Tiberians would put you away, but never in a million years did I think that Tiberian would be me."

"You're not going to kill me," Lloyd promised, trying to keep his courage up. "You can stop this right now, you know."

Tiberius just started laughing. "Don't think bargaining now is going to help you anymore."

"Tiberius, you're just doing this because of something you were taught growing up, and the people who taught it to you were taught by someone else. All you're doing is holding a grudge for something that happened thousands of years ago. I'll bet you don't even know _why_ you want to destroy Aselia now!" Lloyd tried to reason.

Tiberius didn't say anything; he just turned around and stared out a gigantic window that showed just how high up they were. They were both standing in the top room of Tower Tiberia, and it looked like it was literally hundreds of feet in the air. The only way Lloyd could tell which soldiers down on the ground were from Tiberia and which were from Meltokio were from the color clothes they were wearing.

"Perhaps you don't know what this room is for," Tiberius said, still not looking to Lloyd. "Allow me to demonstrate."

As he finished saying that, a red button started flashing in front of Tiberius on the control panel. He mashed the button with the side of his fist, and a loud whirring sound was heard.

Lloyd started looking around very quickly as he tried to figure out where the noise was coming from. It wasn't until too late when he realized what it was.

Lloyd ran over to a window and he could see the laser above them. Suddenly, the laser let out a giant thick beam of energy (Lloyd assumed it was mana) and it hit a group of ten Meltokio soldiers. All of them were obliterated on impact, and the only things that remained of any of them after the beam disappeared were piles of ashes.

"Holy cow…" Lloyd said breathlessly when he saw the laser's magnitude.

Tiberius started chuckling. "And that was only on low-power," he hissed. "Wait until you see the destruction I can cause when I fully charge it. Your pitiful world of Aselia will be nothing but dust after I'm through."

Lloyd pulled out both of his material blades. "Tiberius, this is your last chance! Stop the weapon right now!"

Tiberius turned back towards Lloyd and pulled out his giant sword and got in a fighting position.

"Your death will make my victory all the more worthwhile," Tiberius said heartlessly.

Lloyd didn't take a moment after that. He charged at Tiberius with both of his material blades in an attack position, and before long, the two of them were viciously swinging at each other.

Lloyd was now swinging his material blades so quickly that they were nothing more than blurs of red and blue. But Tiberius had his share of lightning-quick reflexes as well. Every single time Lloyd swung with one of his swords, he was able to block Lloyd's swings every single time. Several times, the two swords clashed so quickly and forcefully that a spark or two came flying out.

Tiberius finally got the upper hand and shoved his sword right on top of Lloyd's, but with enough pressure to make it impossible for Lloyd to fight back.

Lloyd soon found himself knocked on the ground, and Tiberius was just about to finish him off with a quick stab to the throat.

Instinctively, Lloyd put up both of his material blades in a crossed formation and created a block for Tiberius's swords. The two combatants pushed their swords against each other, desperate to be the one to come out on top. (Especially Lloyd-his life was literally over if he didn't win)

"You're…not going…to…win…Tiberius," Lloyd struggled to say as he pushed his two material blades against Tiberius's giant sword.

"Just give in," Tiberius said with a wicked smile on his face.

"…no," Lloyd said.

The struggle between the two kept going for some time before Lloyd finally had one last ounce of strength and pushed Tiberius away. Lloyd promptly flung up without using his hands and put both of his material blades in a striking position again.

Tiberius only needed a moment to recover, though. By the time Lloyd was ready to start fighting again, so was Tiberius.

Tiberius started charging violently at Lloyd with the tip of his sword pointing right at him.

Just as the blade would have gone right through Lloyd, Lloyd jumped in the air and did a frontward somersault over him. He gracefully landed on his two feet behind Tiberius and started attacking as if nothing had ever happened.

Tiberius soon turned around and scowled at Lloyd, but it wasn't long before the two of them started fighting again.

Tiberius took one heavy swing at Lloyd's head, and Lloyd ducked just in the nick of time. As a result, Tiberius's sword ended up making a huge slice across the wall of the control room and leaving a very visible mark there. (it only proved more to Lloyd had painful it would be should he get hit by that sword)

Lloyd decided that he had to start doing a few quick moves. He started casting a series of demon fangs across the room.

Tiberius, however, had no trouble jumping over the series of waves as they came hurtling towards him. Lloyd was pretty disappointed to see his attack wasn't as reliable as it usually was.

Suddenly, Tiberius stopped moving and pointed the tip of his sword right at Lloyd. "If you think you're going to win that easily, then you're in a for a _real shock,_ kid!"

The tip of Tiberius's sword started glowing and a thick steam of lightning came out of it, and it was heading right towards Lloyd. Lloyd took one giant leap back and put up his vorpal sword in the path of the lightning bolt. The sword absorbed the bolt, but that was it.

" 'You're in for a real shock, kid'? Come on, I've heard Yuan make wittier remarks," Lloyd taunted to Tiberius.

Instead of making a comeback, Tiberius jumped right in front of Lloyd and then jumped in the air. He instantly started firing more bolts of electricity from his sword and aimed them directly at Lloyd.

In order to avoid getting hit by the powerful lighting, Lloyd had to make giant jumps all across the room. He started jumping so fast and so far to save himself that one would think that he was a human monkey. (Which wasn't too far off from what Raine and Genis considered him a lot of the time)

When Tiberius landed, he stopped firing the electricity from his sword. He gave Lloyd a sneer and started swinging his sword again.

Just to defend himself, Lloyd had to put up both of his material blades and put them up very quickly so he wouldn't get stabbed. The fight went on for a very long time before Lloyd finally got a slight advantage.

After taking a small step back, Lloyd took his vorpal sword and he ducked. As soon as he ducked, he swung the icy blue sword around and he skinned Tiberius's ankle with it. The slice tore open the part of Tiberius's pant leg where Lloyd hit, and it revealed a gashed open wound with a fresh trail of blood trickling from it.

Tiberius didn't seem to take any affect to this, as he only continued fighting just as hard as he did before. He jumped right in front of Lloyd and started to bring down his sword as if he were about to chop Lloyd in half vertically.

Lloyd put up his two material blades to block, but he was clearing getting tired. If he had to keep continuously blocking to insure he would stay alive, then the fight wouldn't go on for much longer.

Tiberius was clearly growing more and more frustrated with how Lloyd refused to give in. But now he had a new strategy. Instead of just trying to push Lloyd's blade away and have the upper hand for a moment or so, Tiberius instead resorted to lifting the blade away from Lloyd's until the swords were a few inches apart. He then started mercilessly smashing his giant sword back down on top of Lloyd's two smaller ones.

Tiberius just kept smashing Lloyd's material blades harder with each blow. And every time Tiberius's blades made contact and were rammed into Lloyd's two swords, Lloyd audibly grunted louder.

Lloyd clearly would not last much longer. At long last, Tiberius performed an uppercut with his sword and knocked the flamberge out of Lloyd's hand. Lloyd let out a small gasp when he realized how huge trouble he was in, but he didn't have much time for it.

Less than an instant later, Tiberius stuck his sword right into one of Lloyd's ribs. Lloyd started moaning in pain and he dropped his vorpal sword. His eyes were squeezed shut and his teeth were grit. All traces of color had left his skin tone as he fell on his knees.

After kneeling on his knees for just a few seconds, Lloyd just collapsed on the ground and didn't move.

Tiberius started snickering to himself. He started taking his foot and lightly nudging Lloyd's side with it. Lloyd moved and flinched a little, indicating he was still alive.

"Heh, you are one stubborn kid," Tiberius remarked. "I think I'll torture you for a while."

Instead of dealing a final blow to Lloyd and finishing him, Tiberius went back over to the controls. He sheathed his sword as he got back and cast Lloyd a dirty look.

"I at least want you to be alive when you see this, kid," Tiberius said.

Lloyd only let out a small moan. He took his hand and pressed it against the spot on his ribs where Tiberius had stabbed him. He removed his hand only to see it encased with blood. This was probably the most serious wound Lloyd had ever gotten in a battle.

"Tiberius…don't…" Lloyd moaned as he slowly started reaching his open hand out.

Tiberius started laughing like a maniac. "And to think you thought you could beat me! Hmmmm…for the son of one of Mithos's Four Seraphim, I expected more a fight from you."

Tiberius turned his attention back to the controllers and started hitting a few buttons. Instantly, Lloyd felt the cold metal tile from beneath him start rumbling. It almost sounded like something was collapsing from beneath the floor.

The walls started shaking and rumbling themselves quite a bit. Lloyd honestly thought Tiberius had done something to make the entire place around them start collapsing.

"Tiberius…" Lloyd tried to mutter through his own pain and through the noise of the loud, shaking control room. "…no…"


	36. Final Battle

The rumbling got louder and louder. Lloyd could only stutter in small bursts of pain as the control room started shaking louder and louder. Finally, Lloyd felt as if something had been pulled out from under him. He felt as if the floor was somehow pushing itself upon him, forcing him up.

Of course, Lloyd knew it was only an illusion. But why? Then, he got his answer when he looked out the window to the controls that Tiberius was standing at. He saw that the control room at the top of Tower Tiberia had somehow _ejected itself_ from the tower and was now hovering over the battle field.

"Tiberius…" Lloyd choked, still clutching his side in pain. "What's going on?"

"Heh heh heh," Tiberius lightly laughed. "I'll bet you didn't think the tower could do _this_, did you?"

Lloyd couldn't say anything. He was in too much pain and agony from the wound Tiberius had given him.

"Well, now that I'm in the air, I can attack _anything_ on the battlefield that I wish!" Tiberius exclaimed. "If you could stand up, I'd demonstrate it. But since you're too weak to even move, I'm afraid the best you'll do is hear it."

Tiberius hit the same button right in front of him, and the giant laser fired and blew away several Meltokio soldiers that were fighting in the crowd below. Despite being such a high distance in the air, Lloyd could have sworn he heard their screams of terror and suffering.

"Tiberius…you gotta stop this!" Lloyd insisted, finally getting the strength to move his hands a little.

"No, I think I'll keep it going until all your miserable soldiers are dead!" Tiberius yelled, still not looking at Lloyd, but rather keeping his focus on the controls in front of him.

Lloyd couldn't do anything. The pain was too staggering. It was hopeless. He had made it that far only to get a simple wound in the ribs and be too injured to keep going. Disgusted with himself, he put his head face-down onto the cold metal floor of the control room.

"_Lloyd…"_

Lloyd shot his head up. He could have sworn he just heard a voice call his name. A disturbingly familiar voice, at that. Lloyd looked up and at his sides, but there was no one around. It was still just him and Tiberius inside the control room.

"_Lloyd…"_

Lloyd heard the deep, commanding voice again. He perked up even more. He knew he wasn't hearing things, but who was talking to him? Finally, Lloyd looked up and was shocked at what he saw.

Hovering right above Lloyd was a ghostly image of Kratos. The image looked exactly like Kratos, except for the fact he was fairly transparent.

"_Lloyd, you mustn't give up. The battle has not been lost yet."_

"K…Kratos?"

"_He's right, dear. You haven't lost."_

Lloyd perked up even more when he heard this. The voice he just heard did not come from Kratos; the voice was too feminine and soft to come from him.

Then, right beside Kratos, another ghostly image appeared. The spirit looked like a woman with curly brown hair, and she appeared to be a bit short. But her smile was very welcoming and you could tell she was a very loving, caring person.

"M…mom!" Lloyd said loudly, his eyes wide in disbelief and on the verge of tears.

"_We love you, Lloyd,"_ said the spirit of Anna, Lloyd's long dead mother.

"_You've made us proud, son,"_ Kratos's spirit said, looking like he was smiling more than Lloyd could ever remember him smiling before. His tone also seemed to be getting more fatherly and caring instead of assertive and commanding.

"_Please, Lloyd, don't give up!"_ Anna encouraged.

"_You hold the fate of all of Aselia in your hand. If you lose this battle, then humans, elves, half-elves, summon spirits, and every other living creature will be no more." _Kratos's spirit said.

"_Please, Lloyd. We know you can do it."_

Saying that, the images of Anna and Kratos slowly started disappearing right in front of Lloyd's eyes. He was breathing heavy, but now from rage and determination, not anguish. With a sudden burst of strength, he forced himself up, and somehow, his wound no longer hurt.

Lloyd was now back on two feet and was approaching Tiberius, who was still too obsessed with firing the laser to notice Lloyd was up. Lloyd slowly started unsheathing his material blades, but he put his flamberge in his stronger hand. Taking careful aim, he smashed the blade of the flamberge over Tiberius's head.

Tiberius screeched in pain as he fell onto the floor, a giant wound visible through his thick black hair.

"Time to finish you!" Lloyd yelled.

But at the last second, Tiberius pulled out his own sword and blocked Lloyd's flamberge just as he was about to use it.

"You're not going to win that easily!" Tiberius threatened.

After making that comment, Tiberius jumped into the air and landed firmly on the ground with his sword in position. And once again, the two were ready to fight.

Tiberius gave Lloyd a very cold stare before either one of them took a fast swing. The biggest fight of the entire journey was about to begin.

Everything had been leading up to this one fight. Lloyd realized that if he and Colette hadn't been on that boat in that exact same spot and encountered Skelter at just the right time, then he wouldn't be in this crucial battle now.

Lloyd jumped quickly in the air and had his material blades pointing right at Tiberius's chest as he started descending, almost like he was performing a falcon crest.

Tiberius, of course, jumped out of the way at the very last moment. Lloyd was expecting this, though, and retracted his material blades before they would have gone right into the ground.

Lloyd landed on his two feet and spun around as soon as he landed and started swinging at Tiberius again. He and Tiberius were soon dueling more violently than ever now. Nothing but the sounds of swords clashing could be heard as they bellowed off the walls of the flying control room.

Tiberius did a surprise attack and acted like he was going to take a swipe at Lloyd with his massive sword, but instead, he threw a punch.

Just as Tiberius had hoped, the punch knocked Lloyd off his guard long enough to get in another hit. He took the opportunity to get ready to stick his blade right through Lloyd, but Lloyd performed a quick jump at the last minute to dodge it.

Lloyd landed on the ground with a hard thud, and it sent a huge shockwave of pain right through him, but he had to ignore it. He had no other choice. As he got up, he saw Tiberius was staying a far distance away, but he still had his sword pointing right at him. Lloyd knew full well what he was going to do.

Lloyd predicted in his mind that Tiberius was going to start firing those bolts of electricity from his sword like last time, and his prediction proved correct.

Tiberius started firing a series of the bolts of electricity from his sword and aimed them carefully at Lloyd.

Lloyd had to jump, roll, and do any other physical maneuvering he possibly could in order to not be hit by the rays of electricity Tiberius was firing. The rays just kept barely missing Lloyd and hitting the wall behind him or the floor, leaving a large charred mark wherever it hit.

When Lloyd was running in front of the controls, he got an idea. Maybe if he could make Tiberius unintentionally hit the controls by firing the electricity, then maybe it would cause the controls to break. That would cause the entire control room to fall out of the sky, and Lloyd with it, but it was a risk he had to take to save his world, Aselia.

But Tiberius seemed to see into Lloyd's trail of thought and didn't fire at Lloyd's body which was right in front of the controls. Instead, he fired at Lloyd's head.

Lloyd was able to duck before the bolts of electricity would have hit him in the head, but as a result, the electricity soared right over him and instead smashed the window behind him.

The glass making up the window shattered and started clinking its way onto the controls and across the floor, making it very dangerous to fall on.

But that didn't stop Lloyd and Tiberius from fighting too much. Lloyd had enough of the dodging and instead decided to just attack Tiberius head on. He pulled out both of his swords and started charging at him like a bull.

Tiberius jumped out of the way, but Lloyd started drastically slowing down as he came closer. Lloyd then took the sword in the hand that was closer to Tiberius (that would be his Vorpal Sword) and tried thrusting it right into Tiberius.

It worked…a little. It managed to poke Tiberius in the side and hurt him a little, but he still had plenty left to go on.

Both fighters were getting very tired, but neither one of them could do anything about it. They had to fight well past their body's limits if they wanted to survive, and neither one of them planned on backing down.

After a long while, Tiberius started getting ready to perform a huge swing that would be fatal to just about any part of Lloyd's upper body if it.

Lloyd ducked out of the way just in time, but not before Tiberius took a second swing and hit Lloyd on the rebound with it.

Lloyd screamed in pain as he started slowly walking backwards. He dropped both of his material blades and looked like he could barely keep himself standing.

After a long while, Lloyd fell backwards and onto the controls right in front of the smashed window. Snickering, Tiberius went over to him and pulled out his sword, ready to stick it through Lloyd and win the battle.

"Good-bye, son of Kratos," Tiberius said in a heated way.

Thinking at the last minute, Lloyd reached up and grabbed Tiberius by the front of his shirt. He pulled Tiberius closer to him and tried holding him there with one hand. From there, he started using his free hand to start punching Tiberius in the face as hard as he could.

When Tiberius was dazed, Lloyd used the extra moment to slip out from on top of the controls and was now on his two feet again. Quicker than Tiberius could react, Lloyd kicked Tiberius from behind, pushing him forward.

Tiberius almost fell out the window, but he resisted and gave just enough strength to not fall out. But all it took was another kick from Lloyd to ruin that.

Lloyd kicked Tiberius once more, and Tiberius was pushed out of the shattered window and started plummeting to the ground. The fall ended when the leader of Tiberia landed flat on the hard ground, hundreds of feet below.

Lloyd looked over the side and instantly saw Tiberius lying motionless on the ground below. But to Lloyd's amazement, Tiberius started getting up.

Tiberius's nose was broken and there were streams of blood all over him, but somehow, he survived the fall. He slowly started standing up and looked up at Lloyd in the control room, barely able to make out Lloyd's image as he looked over the side and down at him.

"He's still alive?" Lloyd said in astonishment. "Man, that guy just doesn't give up!"

Thinking fast, Lloyd went over to the controls and looked for the best way to destroy them. If he destroyed the controls, then maybe he could destroy the weapon as well. But none of the controls looked familiar to Lloyd at all.

"Ugh…where's Raine when you need her?" Lloyd asked. He started pressing random buttons on the controls, and by sheer luck, one of the buttons brought up a screen that seemed to have an aiming program installed in it.

Lloyd realized he was looking at the screen that showed where the laser was targeted. He then saw a joystick right below the screen where he could change the position the laser was in.

Thinking fast, Lloyd took the joystick and clutched it in his hands. Just as he deduced, the laser started moving with the movements Lloyd was making. He could now aim it in several places.

Lloyd stopped when he saw that he had aimed the laser right on Tiberius, who was still too injured to even move very quickly. In fact, if he tried walked at all, he would slip and fall down.

Once Lloyd had Tiberius in the dead-center of the target, he looked below and saw the giant red button that Tiberius hit to fire the laser. It was Lloyd's best shot.

Tiberius saw the laser aiming right at him, and he knew what Lloyd was doing. There was nothing he could do but stand there and wait out his final moments.

"Goodbye…" Lloyd said in a very low, sorrowful voice. He was silent for over eight seconds before finishing his sentence. "…Tiberius."


	37. Victory

Ready to finish the battle once and for all, Lloyd slammed the side of his fist down on the red button. In just a matter of seconds, the laser started charging up and was getting ready to fire.

Tiberius could only stare as the giant beam of energy was forming and getting close to striking him down.

Moments after Lloyd hit the button and the energy formed in the laser cannon, it fired very quickly to the ground and hit Tiberius dead-on.

Anyone on the ground and watching Tiberius as he got blasted by the giant weapon would be horrified. They would see the giant beam come down on Tiberius and encase him, but a silhouette of him would still be very visible through the blinding blue and white light of the laser. In an instant, someone watching would see the silhouette of Tiberius go from looking whole to suddenly looking like a pile of dried sand get blown away in a violent wind.

When the laser cleared, all that was left of Tiberius was a pile of ash and some very small fragments of bone. The scattered remains were in the middle of a crater in the ground that the laser had left.

Lloyd stared, almost horrified at what he had just done. Never before had he seen someone die so violently, and he irked him that he was the one who had to do it. But it was for the best, he had to keep telling himself.

To finish the entire job, Lloyd flew the floating top of Tower Tiberia over a patch of the battlefield where there were no soldiers, and he started completely destroying the controls. Taking both of his material blades, Lloyd began hacking at everything inside the room that could be destroyed.

It wasn't long at all before Lloyd could feel the flying ship start to lose its stability in the air, and it started falling very quickly.

Lloyd concentrated all the power of his Cruxis Crystal and sprouted his angel wings and flew out of the top of Tower Tiberia through the window that Tiberius had smashed in their fight.

As Lloyd flew out, he could see the top of the Tower start falling out of the air and towards the ground. When the giant top of the tower hit the ground, it created a giant dust cloud that blocked Lloyd's vision for a long while. As Lloyd shielded himself from the dust cloud but still remained flying, the image of the control room was becoming more and more visible. When the view was completely clear again, the top of Tower Tiberia and the once highly advanced and highly dangerous control room looked like it was in ruins now. It was completely destroyed, never to be used again.

Lloyd took a deep breath, and then he heard something very disturbing. Nothing. That's what he was hearing.

Lloyd quickly started flying over to where the battle was taking place, but he heard no more screams of terror or pain or agony, and he saw no more blood or dismembered limbs flying through the air. He slowly started descending when he got back to the battle field, and what he saw took his breath away.

As Lloyd landed where the battle was taking place, he saw that the fighting had stopped. The swordsman looked at all the dead bodies around him, of both Tiberian soldiers and ones from Meltokio. All of them looked like they had suffered horrific deaths during the battle. But what Lloyd saw after that truly left him speechless.

After seeing all the dead bodies, Lloyd looked up at what was straight ahead of him. All of his companions-Genis, Raine, Colette, Sheena, Zelos, Presea and Regal were standing there and were looking directly at him, all completely silent. Standing beside them was Yuan and Zyn, and behind Lloyd's nine companions were all the Meltokio soldiers who had survived. There wasn't a single trace of Tiberian military left. Lloyd didn't know how, but his friends had done it. They had pulled through, won the battle, and survived.

Lloyd stared breathlessly and awe inspired at all of them. He couldn't believe what had just happened. Everything that had happened over the past several days, and it was now all over.

All of Lloyd's companions walked over to him, but none of them said a word. In fact, none of them were even smiling at him. They all had the same serious looks of disbelief all over their expressions. There were no words and no emotions being shown, and yet there was something about the whole scene that tugged at their hearts.

Without any of them saying a word, all of them started marching away from the battle field and backed towards the portal to take them back to Aselia. They marched and didn't speak once, not even any of the Meltokio soldiers who lived. Never looking back, they all left the blood-stained battlefield, hoping to never have to look at it again.

A gentle wind blew by after that, and it brushed away all the fragments and remains of Tiberius.

After the group had walked away from the battlefield and through the portal that took them back to their own world, they found themselves back outside Meltokio. All of them quietly marched into the city, trying not to create a disturbance. But that didn't last long.

As soon as most of them were inside the gates to the city, civilians started bursting out of their houses and were cheering loudly, enthusiastically and happily. The surprise warm welcome caused Lloyd and his party to stall in their tracks.

The civilians continued pouring into the streets and their cheers got louder and louder. No one in Lloyd's group was expecting this, so none of them knew how to react. They just stared open mouthed at all the civilians that were cheering for them and congratulating them on their victory against Tiberius.

"Ah. Chosen," said a deep voice coming through the crowd. Everyone in the large mob quieted down and parted, creating a pathway leading right to the heroes. It was the King of Tethe'alla, and it was obvious who he wanted to talk to.

Zelos had a smug expression on his face as he approached the king of his city. "What is it, your majesty?"

"Chosen," the king repeated, "I see you have done well in leading my troops to victory in that battle. For that, I truly congratulate and honor you. You have saved our world…yet again."

Zelos was surprised by the king's surprisingly pleasant welcome-back. He didn't know what to say. "Uh…thank you, your majesty."

The king nodded his head. "I had a feeling you would pull through for me, so as a way of saying thank you, I have reserved that dinner hall down the street from your mansion for a victory party tonight."

"Really?" Zelos said, getting excited.

"I kid you not," the king said. "The party will begin at 8:00. Better start getting ready."

"Thank you, your majesty," Zelos said yet again.

The king, for the first time in a while, smiled at Zelos. Princess Hilda, the king's daughter, popped up behind him and started clapping her hands. The king shortly followed in applauding, as did several civilians. Before anyone realized what had happened, the entire crowd that was flooding the streets burst into a deafening round of applause and cheers.

Then, for the first time since the final battle began, a large, happy smile started spreading across Lloyd's face.

------------------------------ ---------------------------------- ---------------------------- ----------

"Yeah!" screamed Zelos loudly and excitedly. He had a bottle of an alcohol-beverage in his hand that he had just popped open, and now he was spraying everyone around him with the beverage inside.

It was past 8:00 now and the victory party in the dinner hall had begun. Now everyone who took part in the journey was laughing and smiling and enjoying themselves. Well, almost everyone.

Lloyd took a huge bite out of a piece of pie that was sitting at a buffet table as he ran over to Yuan, who was sitting in a corner and just watching the celebration.

"Come on, Yuan, why don't you have some fun and enjoy yourself?" Lloyd asked.

"Heh. I have better things to do than to make a pig of myself and started dancing around like an idiot," Yuan replied.

"Aw, come on, Yuan!" Lloyd said. "Why'd you even come if you weren't going to have any fun?"

"I…came here to supervise you guys," Yuan said. "You can never trust kids when you're throwing a giant party."

"Sure, whatever," Lloyd said as he walked away from the blue-haired Seraphim.

Lloyd walked over to all of his friends just to party with them and celebrate their decisive and saving victory in that battle.

Lloyd ran over to Genis, and the two of them promptly gave each other a high-five, then hit the side of their fists with each other, both of them having very visible smiles when doing so.

Raine came over, and she gave Lloyd a gentle hug. After a few seconds, the two of them broke apart and smiled at each other for a few seconds before Raine walked away.

Colette was then in Lloyd's view after that. Lloyd quickly walked over to her and the two of them stared at each other for what felt like a long time. Then, all the partying around them and the loud victory music somehow got drowned out. The two teenagers slowly got close to each other, then embraced each other in a very affectionate and caring hug. It was several seconds before either one of them let go.

Sheena was the next one to come out, and Lloyd gave her a very caring hug as well. After the hug, Sheena put up one fist in the air right in front of Lloyd's face, trying to non-verbally say, "We rule!". Lloyd put his fist up in the same way as a response.

Zelos was laughing like a maniac, but he went over to Lloyd anyway and gave him a forceful high-five. Zelos then even proceeded to do a fist-pound with Lloyd.

After Zelos and Lloyd shared their moment of victory, Presea went over to Lloyd. Lloyd wasn't sure how to congratulate Presea for a job well done, and neither did Presea, apparently.

When a long while had past after the two of them started making eye contact, Presea put out her hand to shake Lloyd's. Not hesitating for a moment, Lloyd put his hand out, and the two of them shook.

Regal was the last one to go over to Lloyd. Since his hands were tied up, he couldn't shake hands or hug or anything like that. Instead, he showed slight signs of a smile and nodded his head to Lloyd. Lloyd did the same.

The rest of the party went fairly mainstream for a while. There was lots of cheering and there was never a second when someone wasn't smiling. All of them were so happy that the journey was over and that they had saved the world again.

Then, while everyone was still partying, Lloyd looked over and saw that Zelos's butler was standing there, apparently to keep watch as well. Lloyd walked over to the butler and said, "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," the butler said politely.

Moments later, the music was suddenly turned off, and the celebrating with it. Everyone was confused at what happened, until Zelos's butler stepped in front of everyone.

"Everyone," he said, loud enough for everyone to hear him. "Sir Bud would like to make an announcement."

Lloyd nervously walked in front of everyone. They were all clearly interested in what it was he wanted to say.

"Uh…hey, everybody," Lloyd said nervously. He had never publicly spoken like this before. "Look, there's something I kinda want to say."

The entire room fell silent.

"First of all, I want to thank all you guys for helping me out," Lloyd said in a very grateful tone. "You guys had busy lives to deal with when this entire journey started, but you all risked your lives to help me make it through. Thank you, all of you."

Everyone in the room started clapping.

"Thank you, to all of you: Genis, Raine, Sheena, Zelos, Regal, Presea, Colette, Yuan and Zyn, who unfortunately couldn't make it here tonight due to being sworn in as Tiberia's new leader."

There was more applause before Lloyd put both of his hands up, telling them all to hold their cheers for later. He suddenly looked like what he was about to say would be very difficult, and it soon became clear why.

"But most of all, I wanted you to thank Kratos."

Everyone's smiles suddenly faded, and they turned to serious and sad expressions.

"Kratos couldn't make it either…" Lloyd managed to choke out, "…because he's no longer with us. He gave his life for me, for you guys, and for the world. For that, I ask that you always keep him in your thoughts and remember how he helped us and was a decisive factor _twice_ now for our journeys."

No one looked happy anymore. They were clearly heeding Lloyd's words and remembering Kratos.

"And he wasn't the only one," Lloyd said, still sounding depressed. "There was Skelter, there was Stromm, there was Cesara, there was Kayne…there was Tiberius. And there were all those Tiberian soldiers and all those soldiers from Meltokio. All those were lives that were lost because of a hatred that was born 4,000 years ago that means nothing today."

The group was clearly taking in every word Lloyd said, and some (like Genis) were surprised that Lloyd even had the capability of making the speech that he was.

"It's never good to hold grudges," Lloyd said. "That was a grudge from the Kharlan War 4,000 years ago, and look what it did. So please, everyone…don't hold on to your hatred. It doesn't do you or anyone else any good."

There was a long silence before Lloyd could finally finish. "Once again, thank you everyone for helping me out on this journey. I could not have done it without you guys. You guys are the best friends I could have ever asked for. And after this journey, I know for a fact that we all have ties and bonds to each other that will never break."

Lloyd's companions slowly started clapping and cheering for their leader. Before long, all of them were partying again, once again celebrating their victory.

------------------------- ------------------------------------- ------------------------------ --------

To all my readers, I can safely tell you those guys won't be the only ones partying in a while…


	38. A New Start and Name

"Mom…and Dad, I'm home," Lloyd said sadly.

It had been several days since the final battle on Tiberia. Lloyd had been recovering his strength after his journey by sleeping at various inns across the world, but he had not seen any of his friends since the victory party.

Now, he was finally returning to his home with Dirk. As always, the first thing he did was walk over to the monument for his mom. But now that Kratos was gone, he had to visit the monument for him that was built right next to Anna's.

Lloyd walked over to the front of the monuments and kneeled down on one knee in front of them. He wasn't doing anything, but he stared at them for the longest time. In fact, he didn't even move until he heard someone from behind.

"I'm proud of ya, son," said a familiar Scottish voice from behind him.

Lloyd turned around, and Dirk was standing there watching him. He seemed real proud of Lloyd, all right, and knew that he was aware he was going through tough times.

"…Yeah," Lloyd said, slowly turning his head back to the two graves. He took turns looking at one of them. The images he saw of his two dead parents when he was about to be killed by Tiberius never left his head.

"Just remember," Dirk said, "whenever you're feeling lonely or lost, you can always come here."

"I know," Lloyd said, taking his eyes off the graves and looking at his foster-father. He looked like he was faintly starting to smile. "You know, the night before Colette's journey of regeneration began, I told her that she has two fathers and that she should consider herself lucky for having more than most people do."

Dirk seemed like he knew where Lloyd was going with this, but with Lloyd, he could never be too sure.

"Then after her journey ended, I found out I had two fathers of my own. But now, I guess I only got one. Just like Colette only had one the whole time," Lloyd finished.

Dirk really didn't see the point in what Lloyd was trying to say, but he just nodded his head to try to comfort his "son".

"All right, Lloyd," Dirk said. "You've had a long journey. Come inside and I'll fix yer up something to eat. And I won't make you recite the dwarven vows, but just this once, ya hear?"

"All right, dad," Lloyd said.

Dirk went into the house, but Lloyd didn't. He remained kneeling in front of the gravestone for his mom and dad.

Lloyd couldn't believe it, but he had once again gotten the best turnout he could have hoped for after the final battle. During the journey of Regeneration, he vowed to find a way to make sure Tethe'alla and Sylvarant didn't need to sacrifice one another to thrive, and he was able to pull it off.

And just like that, the same thing happened in his journey with Tiberia. He didn't want to go with Stromm's way of destroying Tiberia to insure Aselia's safety, nor did he want Tiberius to sacrifice Aselia for Tiberia's safety. Lloyd had once again found a way to save all the innocent people of both worlds.

Then, another voice cracked the still air around them.

"You miss your dad," said a masculine, but gentle voice from behind him. "Don't ya?

Lloyd turned around, and he was surprised with who it was.

"Zyn?" Lloyd asked, a huge smile spreading across his face.

Zyn was standing there all right, but he looked completely different now. His dark yellow military outfit was gone and was now replaced with exactly the kind of outfit Tiberius wore- silver pants, a silver military coat and dark shoes. That apparently was the outfit worn to indicate the leader's position.

"Yeah, I do," Lloyd said, answering Zyn's question. "Every day."

"I'm really sorry," Zyn said, sounding completely sincere in what he was saying. "I'm hoping to fix everything Tiberius ruined so those things don't happen again. Let's just hope I'm capable of it."

"You will be," Lloyd promised. "I've only known you for a few days, and already I can tell you that you would make a better leader than Tiberius ever would hope to."

"That means a lot to me, Lloyd," Zyn said.

"Yeah," Lloyd said. He finally stood up and started walking away. "Well, dad's making me something to eat. See ya."

"Wait, Lloyd!" Zyn called out.

Lloyd froze in his tracks. "Huh? What is it?"

"I have one last favor I want to ask of you."

"Really? What's that?"

"You still have your teleporter, don't you?" Zyn asked. "Can you take us to Tiberia with that?"

"Huh? Sure…" Lloyd said, not really knowing what business Zyn wanted there. He turned and looked back at the graves. "Bye, mom. Bye…_Kratos_."

Lloyd pulled out the black box that Yuan and Kratos had spent a long time working on and hit a button on it. The two of them were taken away by bright lights that slowly closed in on them. Just as the lights would have imploded, Lloyd and Zyn were gone. They soon found themselves on the battlefield of Tiberia where that final fight had taken place. Lloyd was shocked to see all the bodies were gone.

"Wait, where are all the soldiers who were killed?" Lloyd asked.

Zyn chuckled. "It's pretty hard finding people who are willing to pick up corpses, and it's even harder to find one who'll do it for decent pay."

"Oh," Lloyd said.

"But anyway, this is where Tower Tiberia stood," Zyn said, pointing to the tower. Despite the giant battle that took place there, the tower was still standing strong.

"What's the big deal?" Lloyd said.

"This tower is what symbolizes our world," Zyn said. "But I'm not sure I like its name. That's why I brought you here, Lloyd. I want you to pick out a new name for this tower, therefore, a new name for this world."

"What?" Lloyd asked. "Why?"

"Our world was named for a cruel tyrant and who always thought violence was the answer to everything," Zyn explained, a sad smile forming over his face. "I don't want it to be named after someone like that. This is _my_ world now."

Lloyd couldn't believe that Zyn was giving him the opportunity to name his world for him. He had no idea what to call it.

"Tiberia has been a world that's been suffering for thousands of years," Zyn explained. "It never knew which side to choose when it came to loyalty. It was struggling for the longest time to decide what it should do. It ended up making several choices it would soon regret. The leaders of the past have made several horrible mistakes, and now it's time that we pay for those mistakes. But we can always look ahead to a brighter future. In the end, we're going to end up making the right decision, but we still need to pay for our mistakes."

Lloyd was surprised at everything Zyn had just told him, but he supposed that it made sense now. He carefully analyzed everything Zyn just told him. What would he name a world after hearing everything Zyn just said?

At long last, Lloyd finally snapped up and looked like he had made up his mind. Yes-he had made up his mind. There was no changing his thoughts on what to rename Tiberia now.

"So, this is what the new name of Tiberia will be, huh?" Lloyd asked. He stared at Zyn with a wide smile. "All right, I've got it! The world's new name is…"

**FIN…**

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(exhales) Wow, would you look at that. Ever since September 2005 I've been struggling to come up with a story for a Tales of Symphonia story. It was, and is still, my favorite game to date. Now, Tales of the Abyss, a game that's supposed to blow Symphonia out of the water, is hitting most shelves today, and I'm hoping to get it and start playing it tonight. You know, as a way to celebrate the end to this story.

So, it's on October 11, 2006 that I finally finish something I've been thinking about since September 2005. Never before has anything taken over a year of work to outline, plan, and complete. I remember starting this story the night before the last day of my previous school year, and who'd have thought it would take forty-three days into the school year for me to complete it?

I'm so happy that I've finally been able to finish this story. I've been scrambling my mind since late in November to try to come up with a story for this, so I think I'll give you a brief history on it.

My earliest thoughts had Lloyd having flashbacks about the journey of Regeneration and having the flashbacks mean much more. But that still didn't give me a concrete foundation for a plot. So, when I was watching something on the Travel Channel (I think), I saw a documentary about mysterious symbols that have popped up on the earth and no one can explain how they got there. I thought that using mysterious symbols in relation to Lloyd's flashback would give a solid idea.

However, after outlining about 22 chapters of that plot, I realized it was becoming very slow and very repetitive, and it wasn't something that I thought I could look back on and be proud of. So, I tossed the idea and started all over. Well, almost all over. There were a few ideas I kept, but most of them were names. In the rejected plotline, there was going to be a villain named Skelter and a traitor named Cesara. Kratos was also going to die in that one as well.

Yes, having Kratos die as a plot twist was something I've been planning for a long time now. The idea first came to me back in January and I thought about putting it in there ever since. (I also planned on his final words being "Don't die before I do, Lloyd-my son") I was given an idea by someone who was helping me out a little with outlining the story and they gave a suggestion on a way to bring Kratos back, but I rejected the idea.

Anyway, by the time I had finally got a solid idea for a story I thought would work for the plot, it wasn't until February. I was watching something on the History Channel (once again, that's only what channel I remember it being on) when I saw something about Atlantis on it, and I thought the idea of having an ancient civilization that held some mighty power capable of mass destruction would make for a good plot. Of course, there were no ancient civilizations in this story, but I continued working with ideas that eventually got turned into the idea of having a crystal with Mithos's powers hidden beneath the surface of an island.

In both this story and the one that I outlined 22 chapters off before scratching it, I had the idea of having something Mithos set up before he went corrupt so people could deal with one of his enemies even after he was gone.

But, you're probably not paying attention to any of this, because you're probably pretty upset with me for not finishing Lloyd's sentence. Well, before I started outlining the story, I decided I wanted it to end the same way the game ended. (by the way, Lloyd name the tree "Yggdrassil", I promise you. Play Tales of Phantasia and/or do research on Norse Mythology if you don't believe me) In order to do that, I had to have Lloyd be given the honor of naming something very important, which is when I got the idea for the leader to be corrupt and name the world after himself, which would give Lloyd the honor of renaming it after the leader was killed)

That's how I ended up naming the story, and it was one of the harder parts, actually. I tried to come up with a name that would work well for a world but also for a person. I tried making up several names, and I finally came up with Tiberius as the name for the villain and Tiberia for the name of the world.

I'll finish this part off with my view on the ending. Part of the reason I made the ending this way is for you to be open ended about what Lloyd would re-name Tiberia. However, I have a set name in my head for what Lloyd _really_ named the world. (in other words, I know what he _does_ name it, but since I didn't actually write and record it, and there's going to be no sequel, there's no right or wrong answer) I tried to put in some clues, though, in Lloyd's last conversation with Zyn over what Lloyd decided to re-name Tiberia. So if you want to re-read it and actually try and analyze what Zyn said that would convince Lloyd what to name Tiberia, please do and see if you can come up with what he named it.

I think I've ranted on about that. Now, for the mushy thanks and for the sad good-byes. (well, in a sense) I want to thank Leppers and Christoph for being my main reviewers throughout this story. Your reviews, as they always do, motivated me to keep going. (and Leppers, you're actually the reason this story happened in the first place-amazing what you can do just for saying "I'll review your story if and when you write it", isn't it? But thank you to you guys for reviewing and sticking by me.

Thanks to all my other reviews who decided to stop reviewing after a while. That's cool, though; I'm really not too angry about it.

Writing this has become something I've been either thinking about or trying to plan for the past thirteen months. I'm finishing this on the day I'll (hopefully) get Tales of the Abyss, but also on the milestone 20-month anniversary of when I played Tales of Symphonia for the first time. (February 11, 2005) Those two days lining up to be at the same time seemed like an opportune day for me to end this story.

Thank you again for reading this. After all these months, my Tales of Tiberia project has finally come to an end.

-Velkan the Impaler  
3:16 p.m., EST


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